Commanding the Naval Forces off Jaffa.”
CHAPTER IX.
Examination of the Conduct of General Jochmus regarding Ibrahim Pacha’s Retreat—Sir Robert Stopford styled by him Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces—The General’s Reports to Sir Robert Stopford—Unwillingness of the Admiral to prolong the War—Reported Destruction of the Egyptian Army—Advance upon Gaza—Colonel Alderson’s Narrative of the Skirmish of Medjdel.
Whether Sir Robert Stopford, as commanding the allies by sea and land, wrote also to General Jochmus, as well as to General Michell and Captain Stewart, I am not aware. In the official correspondence laid before Parliament Sir Robert Stopford’s orders to these officers do not appear, and we only learn the fact from General Michell and Captain Stewart’s letters, but it is evident though General Jochmus commanded the army of operation he still considered himself under Sir Robert Stopford’s orders, for he writes to him officially from Jaffa, on the 13th of January, 1841[[29]], sending him the details of his operations, in which he styles him Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces. It appears by his letter that he took charge of the army of operation on the 16th of December, 1840; at that period he could not have known of the submission of Mehemet Ali, and therefore he was quite right to make his arrangements for driving Ibrahim from Damascus, particularly after the rejection of the Convention, but he must have been quite aware of his submission by the 22nd, the day he shifted his head-quarters to Hasbeya. In one paragraph of the General’s letter he says Ibrahim had resolved to maintain himself as long as he could in Damascus; in another he states, that should circumstances force him to retire he had determined to march by El Mezereib, the bridge of Moïadjumah on the Jordan, D’Jenin, Ramla, and Gaza, to El-Arish, and this was corroborated by the Admiral having authorized the embarkation of the sick, wounded, and women at Gaza, and the Carysfort frigate being then in the harbour of Alexandria. What does this prove? Why that General Jochmus must have known of the Pacha’s submission, and of the unwillingness of the Admiral to prolong the war.
In the next paragraph he writes (remember this is to his Commander-in-Chief, who disapproved of carrying on hostilities), “Under such circumstances I considered it a most positive duty on my part to defeat the intention of the Egyptian commander, and oblige him to quit Damascus, and follow the route of the Desert; for if a Convention had actually been signed while Ibrahim Pacha remained at Damascus, the military question remained undecided, and the complete conquest of Syria by the allied arms could be denied on the ground of our inability of driving a much superior force from its capital; while, if the Egyptian army made forcibly its way through Palestine to El Arish, its losses and sufferings would be small, the country being rich in every resource, and large government stores existing still at Safed, Tiberias, Ramla, and Gaza.” Now what does this mean? that neither General Jochmus nor Lord Ponsonby, under whose orders it appears, by General Michell’s letter, he was acting[[31]], cared one straw about conventions or submission, but were determined, if they could, to destroy as many human beings as possible to give éclat to themselves, and please the Sultan or his ministers. After describing what his plans were, the General writes, “It was at this time, and it remains still, my firm conviction[[30]], that victory would have crowned the Sultan’s arms in a few hours, and that the whole of Ibrahim’s army would have been annihilated, or obliged to surrender; the only force of his still in some state of organization being his cavalry, and they would have been of no use in the rocky grounds of D’Jenin.”
Here the General reckoned without his host, for there was no necessity for Ibrahim passing by D’Jenin at all. He might have kept through the extensive plains of Esdraelon, until he arrived at the defiles of Kakoun between Mount Carmel and the Naplouse range, which he must have traversed to gain the sea shore; at this point he might have been attacked advantageously. But it appears that Ibrahim had no intention of taking that route; his apparent hesitation at El Mezereib for three days was probably, as General Jochmus says, to reconnoitre the Jordan, but he had another object in view, and which it will be seen he executed with great skill. By General Jochmus’s account he appears to have arrived at Remtha on the 7th or 8th of January, 1841; and on the 9th a foraging party was repulsed near Es-Salt.
“The Egyptian army,” says the General, “fairly launched into the Desert[[32]], has not since been authentically heard of. When last seen, between El Mezereib and Kalat Mefrek, its infantry was reduced to 15,000 disorderly men; its artillery, though still numerous, was utterly disorganized, principally by desertion.”... We shall shortly see where this wandering, disorganized army next makes its appearance.
Ibrahim, the reader already knows, quitted Damascus on the 29th of December, 1840; General Jochmus says he left in consequence of his military dispositions, and being blocked up within the walls of Damascus; but surely irregular troops only, without either pay or commissariat, were not capable of blocking up an army of upwards of 50,000 men, including about 8000 cavalry, known to be in splendid order, 150 pieces of artillery, together with 4000 or 5000 irregulars, for he does not acquaint the Commander-in-Chief that there were any regular Turkish troops near Damascus. The fact is, Ibrahim had received orders from Mehemet Ali to return to Egypt, he knew of the enemy’s army advancing by land, and it would have been imprudent, even if he had not received orders, any longer to have delayed his retreat. Captain De l’Or reports that in three days he lost 10,000 men and 20 guns. “The hail and intense cold,” writes the General, “caused numerous deaths amongst the nearly naked soldiery, in summer clothing, and the sword of the fierce and revengeful Haouranees, the victims of Ibrahim’s abominable oppression, was unmerciful to small detachments of straggling deserters.” All this reputed loss of life took place after Mehemet Ali’s submission, and after that submission was known, and the unfortunate wretches destroyed, if they were destroyed, were the Sultan’s own subjects.
General Jochmus also tells the Commander-in-Chief the valour of the Imperial and Allied troops had done much in the conquest of a vast country like Syria, in a short period of glory and success. How he makes this out I am at a loss to know, for up to this time the Allied and Imperial troops had not fired a shot since the capture of Acre, so if the reports sent to General Jochmus were correct the whole mischief was done by the mountaineers and irregular cavalry.
“The God of battle,” says the General, “may lead Ibrahim and his shattered forces through the desert, and bring some troops back to the banks of the Nile.” (We shall shortly see how many he brought to the banks of the Nile.) “I have taken, as in duty bound, such means as may as much as possible delay his march or diminish his chance of escape.” And again, “It is to me an agreeable duty to state to your Excellency the perfect unanimity which has actuated all the men of the Turkish and allied forces during these late and extensive operations[[33]], which by mere strategic combinations and movements, and with very little loss of life, have produced great and important results; the clear proof of Ibrahim’s having lost Syria by force of arms, and without negotiations, the salvation of Palestine from pillage and destruction, and finally, the enormous loss of the Egyptian General, only as far as El-Mezereib, since he left Damascus, without calculating those reserved for him by the sufferings of the Desert.”