Battle of Mount Tabor ( 1799 ) In the Battle of Mount Tabor , or Skirmish of Mount Tabor , French forces under General Kleber opposed an Ottoman force led by the Pasha of Damascus on 16 April 1799 . General Bonaparte was besieging Acre , and Damascus sent its army to relieve the siege . Operating to the south of Acre , Israel . Background . After the successes of other elements of Napoleon ’ s army , Kléber decided to surprise the main Ottoman concentration of about 35 , 000 men ( 25 , 000 cavalry – many of them Mamelukes , 10 , 000 infantry and the Pasha – much of the Ottoman army being a poorly trained rabble of volunteers and militia ) , which he had come across camped below Mount Tabor in the Plain of Esdraelon - South of Murat , with just a division of approximately 2 , 000 men in a night raid . He hoped this action would hold him in good stead with Napoleon . He must have believed that he had at least a few chances of victory , with his peers and himself being outnumbered and winning previous battles where the enemy knew of their presence . He decided upon a night attack on 15 April : he would circle the northern side of Mount Tabor and raid the Ottoman camp . With Kléber ’ s headquarters was General Verdier ’ s wife , Verdier commanding a brigade during the forthcoming battle . Kléber sent dispatches to Napoleon about the forthcoming action which would reach him around the time of the battle but not give him a chance to intervene beforehand . Once Napoleon received the dispatches , he decided to support and reinforce Kléber with a few thousand men that were based around Acre , but these were no where near enough , even with the 2 , 000 under Kléber , to defeat the Pasha ’ s main army in a set piece battle . Kléber marched east from Nazareth , circling Mount Tabor , keeping west of the Jordan River . Unfortunately Kléber badly estimated how long it would take him to reach the Ottoman camp , and at the break of dawn ( at around six o ’ clock ) he was at the southern base of Mount Tabor . The Ottoman forces spotted Kléber ' s soldiers in the growing daylight , and Kléber realised that his best bet was to form an infantry square ( in this case two squares were formed ) to preserve as many men a possible . It would have been difficult for him to quickly move to any prominent position , although if had moved much closer to the river this would have helped his logistical position ( with nearby / closer water ) and tactical position ( with the Ottomans struggling to attack through / from the water ) , despite that he would have reached musket range of the river ' s edge before the Ottoman forces reached him . Another option would have been to attempt to climb Mount Tabor as high as possible in his limited amount of time . Battle . From 6am to 4pm the French withstood repeated Ottoman charges . They suffered few casualties and easily held their square , but as the day wore on their ammunition ran low and the men suffered from lack of water and hunger . The Ottomans suffered substantial losses , but they could easily replace their casualties and keep up with good supplies and strength to continue repeated strikes throughout the day . Just when all seemed to be lost , and Kléber prepared for a last - ditch breakout towards the Jordan , some soldiers claimed to have briefly seen a military force advancing from the north . Kléber tried to verify their report , which could be a relief column under Napoleon , but he saw nothing but the open desert and a monstrous enemy force . However a moment later Kléber saw the relief column ; at the first moment Kléber had looked , the relief column under the personal command of Napoleon Bonaparte had marched right into a dip . Although Kléber saw and his men began to feel relief , their opponent still had many times more men than Napoleon and Kléber together . Napoleon found himself between the Ottomans and their camp ; he decided to distract them by detaching 300 men to pillage and destroy the Ottoman camp . This succeeded far more than Napoleon could have imagined : upon seeing the destruction of their belongings , the Ottomans assumed they were surrounded . In response , the Ottoman army began to retreat to the south and across the River Jordan . Kléber ordered his men to charge in a last effort for the day , and supported by the rest of the soldiers under Napoleon – who were relatively fresh - this charge transformed the Ottoman retreat into a general rout . Kléber ’ s men found their thirst replaced by an adrenaline rush , and the waters of the Jordan turned red with blood the blood of the Turks were killed in the rout . Aftermath . Overall Kléber ’ s casualties were two dead and seventeen wounded but had Napoleon had arrived just an hour later their casualties would have been far more serious . On the other hand the Ottomans , although estimates can not be relied upon , had lost a large proportion of their overall force . This victory not only ended any major threat of the Pasha ’ s Army lifting the siege of Acre , the surviving Ottoman land forces were scattered and did not reform before Napoleon was forced to lift the siege the following month .