It appears, by Sir Charles Smith’s letter to Lord Palmerston, dated November 24th, 1840[[18]], that Ibrahim retired from Zachle and Malaka on the 21st of that month.
Without at all putting my experience in comparison with Sir Charles Smith’s, I must differ in opinion from him about the propriety of attacking Ibrahim Pacha. When Sir Charles Smith took command of the troops, Ibrahim had lost Sidon, been beat on the heights of Ornagacuan and Boharsof, and been forced to evacuate Beyrout, Tripoli, and the passes of the Taurus, and retire on Zachle. My opinion at the time was for a forward movement. Ibrahim ought not to have been allowed to concentrate at Zachle and Malaka. He ought not to have been allowed breathing-time, and most probably the greater part of his army would have deserted or been captured. I cannot say the Turkish troops were well organized, but, nevertheless, they had done very well; their wants were few, and after getting possession of Beyrout, the means of transport was not wanting, and they were capital marchers. I do not say that we ought to have followed them across the plain of the Bekaa without cavalry, but we ought to have followed him up to Zachle and Malaka, and afterwards been guided by circumstances. It appears that he was enabled to collect 50,000 men at Damascus, of which 30,000 were effective. Such a force being collected, there was a very good reason for accepting a Convention, but a very bad one for rejecting it.
Sir Charles Smith further writes, under date of the 29th of November[[19]], that the troops from Aleppo had commenced their retreat from Damascus on El Mezereib on the 26th instant, and that Ibrahim Pacha had ordered his secretaries to be ready to depart with him by the same route, and the whole of the force under his command had moved, or was in order of march. On comparing dates, it is impossible that Ibrahim’s army could have moved from Damascus on the 26th, as he only left Zachle on the 21st, the distance from thence to Damascus being three days’ march, and it surely would have required more than two days to put in motion an army of 50,000. I am disposed to think the intelligence was incorrect. It is not impossible that a division might have gone to El Mezereib, but I do not believe that Ibrahim began his final retreat till the 29th of December.
Sir Charles further writes from Beyrout, under date of the 6th of December[[20]], that a courier from Alexandria had stopped the progress of the Egyptian army in retreat, and that Ibrahim Pacha, by intelligence of the 2nd from Damascus, “had returned to the city, with the intention of quartering his whole force within the walls, wisely preferring, to the hazard of a retreat through the Desert, the guarantee of the Convention for embarking all he possesses, (plunder as well as military stores,) at the points we hold on the coast; such stipulation having been made clear to his understanding, as being binding on the Allies. The contrary, however, being the fact, he will now find himself, (accidentally as it were,) master of a stronghold in the heart of Syria, of which he had been virtually, if not totally, bereaved.”
How a courier could stop the progress of the Egyptian army I cannot comprehend. The Convention was signed on the 27th of November; on the 28th Mehemet Ali sent an officer to Beyrout by a British steamer, with orders to Ibrahim to commence his retreat; the Egyptian was to be accompanied by a British officer to see it carried into execution. What object, then, could Mehemet Ali have in sending a courier, even if it was possible, which he declared it was not, in consequence of the distracted state of the country, to order them to return? It will be seen, by my correspondence with Boghos Bey, that Mehemet Ali always objected to embarking his troops. I proposed that he should do so, thinking it much better for the peace and happiness of the country, that they should proceed by sea to Alexandria in preference to marching through a country where the inhabitants would be exposed to all the devastations of a retiring army. I never contemplated that his army should be destroyed after signing a Convention; quite the contrary. The moment the Convention was signed, Mehemet Ali could only be considered the Sultan’s servant, and the Egyptian troops the Sultan’s army, and not a hair of their heads ought to have been touched; and as to embarking plunder, no part of the Convention sanctioned that, and if it had been permitted, the blame would have rested with our own officers.
I cannot either understand how Ibrahim Pacha could have known of the Convention which only left Alexandria on the 28th in the afternoon, so as to have allowed him time, had he quitted Damascus on the 27th, to return on the 2nd of December; nor can I understand how he could suppose the Convention should be binding on the Allies, when it was immediately rejected by the authorities in Syria, and his officer sent back without, I believe, landing at Beyrout; nor do I see how he had either been virtually or totally bereaved of his stronghold in Syria, seeing that if he had ever quitted Damascus and returned, it was his own act and deed.
Sir Robert Stopford received the intelligence of Ibrahim’s retreat at Marmorice Bay on the 13th of January, which he communicated to the Admiralty, adding, “my orders to Commodore Sir Charles Napier may by this time have been the means of facilitating his retreat[[21]].”
Captain Stewart writes to the Admiral from Jaffa, January the 10th[[22]]: “General Jochmus reached this from Jerusalem yesterday morning early; and we find that he has given such orders as will complete a line of twenty-eight battalions betwixt this place and Jerusalem, and that all will be in position by sunset this evening. The chief object of this advance seems to be to induce Ibrahim Pacha to retire by the Desert, and not by the coast. We have been somewhat in doubt and suspense as to which road he would retire by; but news reached the Seraskier last night, which is believed to be authentic, stating, that Ibrahim’s vanguard was already thirteen hours’ march to the south-east of El-Mezereib, and that, consequently, there was no longer any doubt of his taking the Desert route. It is very difficult to get information, and still more so to know how much to believe; but my own opinion, and (what is of much more importance,) General Michell’s opinion is, that Ibrahim is positively evacuating Syria. General Michell and I are both determined to confine ourselves strictly to precautionary and defensive measures; and we shall use every endeavour to prevail on our allies to do the same, and not to obstruct, but rather to facilitate, Ibrahim’s retreat.” By this it appears that Captain Stewart and General Michell had also orders to facilitate Ibrahim’s retreat; and with the exception of the irregulars and mountaineers harassing, and occasioning some losses, unavoidable in a retreating army, but very much exaggerated by the officers sent by General Jochmus, who reports them to have lost 10,000 or 15,000 men, on the 5th of January nothing had been done by the Turkish army who occupied Acre, Jerusalem, defiles of D’Jenin, Jaffa, and Ramla.
General Michell writes to Lord Palmerston, dated Acre, December 31, 1840[[23]]:—
“On the departure of Sir Charles Smith, the Sultan’s commission was delivered to General Jochmus, and a few days afterwards he left Beyrout for Sidon, and proceeded thence with some light cavalry to Hasbeyah in the hill country on the Upper Jordan, for the purpose of giving encouragement and direction to the mountaineers, and of obtaining accurate intelligence concerning the Egyptian army.