Affairs in Syria—Letters of Sir Charles Smith to Lord Palmerston—Course that ought to have been pursued after the Battle of Boharsof—Ignorance as to Ibrahim’s Movements and Intentions—General Michell to Lord Palmerston—M. Steindl’s Report respecting the Advance upon Gaza—Capt. Stewart to the Admiral—General Michell’s and Captain Stewart’s Opinion as to Lord Ponsonby’s Orders—Correspondence between Captain Stewart and General Jochmus.

It will now be necessary to go back to Syria, and give an account of what took place there after the rejection of the Convention.

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.

“The most vague and conflicting accounts were arriving daily as to the intentions of Ibrahim Pacha. He had concentrated his forces about Damascus, and the general belief was that he would immediately commence his retreat to Egypt.

“General Jochmus, notwithstanding his nearer approach to Damascus, has been still kept in doubt as to what is going on there; but he seems to be fully of opinion that Ibrahim Pacha is about to move, and that he will, if possible, retreat on Gaza. His proposal, therefore, is to cause the Egyptian Army to be harassed on its flanks and rear by the mountain levies, and having assembled the regular Turkish troops at points along the coast, to operate with them as occasions may offer, in the defiles between the Jordan and the coast. In the mean time General Jochmus has been very desirous of attacking Gaza, and of capturing or destroying the provisions which are said to be in store there for the Egyptian army, and he has repeatedly urged my co-operation for this purpose with men-of-war or steamers on the coast. There have been, however, and are still, many difficulties opposed to such an undertaking. The whole of the fleet had taken shelter at Marmorice, leaving only one steamer to watch the wreck of the Zebra in the Bay of Acre, besides the Hecate, which brought me to Beyrout; yet three French vessels, a corvette, and two brigs of war, remained upon the coast and were generally at anchor near Beyrout. I took the earliest opportunity of making this known to the Admiral, Sir Robert Stopford, and he most kindly and promptly sent Captain Houston Stewart with the Benbow, seventy-two, and the Hazard sloop. They arrived on the 24th of December, but the heavy surf prevented their communication with the shore, and it was not until the 27th that I could get the detachments of artillery and sappers, which came from England in the Hecate, disembarked at Acre. In the mean time, however, Lieutenant-Colonel Colquhoun of the Artillery, and Lieutenant-Colonel Alderson of the Engineers, had made a visit to that fortress, and likewise to Tyre and Sidon.

“The Admiral, while he sent me this naval aid, expressed a great unwillingness to have it employed against Gaza or in any offensive operations; first, on account of the storms prevailing at this season; secondly, because the negotiations opened by Captain Fanshawe were still pending, and he had consented to a request, made by the Pacha of Egypt, Mehemet Ali, that Egyptian steamers might go off Gaza to embark the sick, the women, and the children, of Ibrahim Pacha’s army, for Alexandria.

“Captain Houston Stewart had instructions from the Admiral based upon these reasons; and they of course weighed also with me as to any operations against Gaza; besides I had received information of the Egyptian force there, and at El-Arish, having been largely reinforced.

“Nothing has been seen of the Egyptian steamers from Alexandria, to receive the sick of Ibrahim Pacha’s army. When that permission was given by Captain Fanshawe, it was supposed the army was already on its march to Gaza, and not likely to linger at Damascus. Probably Ibrahim Pacha delays his movement from that city, now, in consequence of the Convention commenced with his father by Captain Fanshawe. Our situation will be very embarrassing until the negotiations are terminated, since any act of hostility on our part may be construed into a breach of faith, and may disturb arrangements half concluded. I am, therefore, anxiously expecting orders from Lord Ponsonby upon the subject. In the meantime his Excellency’s latest instructions to General Jochmus, and upon which he is prepared and resolved to act with energy, dictate a continuance of offensive operations.”

As I have before stated, we now see the Commander-in-Chief of the allied force by sea and land giving directions to his officers to facilitate the retreat of Ibrahim Pacha, and the Austrian Ambassador declaring he would disavow any attack upon him, thereby maintaining good faith with Mehemet Ali; and the Ambassador at Constantinople giving orders to his general to continue offensive operations, thereby compromising not only the honour of England but of the Allied Powers.

M. Steindl, in a letter to Baron StÜrmer, dated the 10th of January, writes from Jaffa^[24],—

“General Jochmus, escorted by 100 Turkish cavalry, continued in the mean time to traverse the mountains of the Naplouse and the districts situated between the Jordan and the Haouran, in order to assemble as many mountaineers as possible. He formed several corps of them, the command of which he entrusted to M. Dumont and Count Szechenyi, his aides-de-camp, for the purpose of harassing Ibrahim Pacha during his retreat, whilst he ordered Omar Pacha, who was stationed at Ramla, with 2500 men, to form a junction with a portion of the garrisons of Jaffa and of Jerusalem, and to attempt a sudden attack upon Gaza, in order there to burn the considerable magazines of provisions which Mehemet Ali had caused to be transported thither to facilitate the retreat of his son’s army by that road.

“The English loudly disavowed this attack, less, as it appears, because they despaired of success, than because Admiral Stopford had indicated to Mehemet Ali that town as the place where the Egyptians should concentrate themselves to be embarked for Alexandria, in case an arrangement could be brought about between the Sultan and his vassal. For this purpose, Rechid Mehemed Pacha, appointed Chief of the Staff at head-quarters, was sent on the 5th instant from St. Jean d’Acre to Tiberias to General Jochmus, with orders to invite him to proceed to Jaffa to be present at a great council of war, whilst the same order was sent by Tatar to Omar Pacha, with a prohibition against attacking Gaza. General Jochmus arrived here in the course of yesterday, still leaving his aides-de-camp at the head of the armed peasantry.”

On the 17th of January Captain Stewart again writes to the Commander-in-Chief from Jaffa^[25]:—

“My letter of the 10th instant^[26], forwarded by Gorgon, would inform you of General Michell’s and my own determination to confine ourselves strictly to precautionary and defensive measures. It will be therefore necessary to explain the circumstances attending a late advance of the Turkish troops upon Gaza, and for this purpose I transmit herewith copies of a letter I addressed to General Jochmus, immediately after our last conference on the 12th instant, also of a note which I received from General Michell, after he had reached Ramla, and my reply to that note, sent by a staff officer to General Michell, at Ashdod.

“General Michell expressed, in the most decided and unequivocal terms, his disapprobation of the expedition. We both appealed to the Seraskier, who refused to put his written veto on the advance, without which General Jochmus declared he would persevere, and accordingly he left Jaffa for Ramla within an hour. General Michell then felt that he was in a peculiarly awkward position, but with the true spirit of an English soldier determined to accompany and render every assistance to the Turkish generals.

“I also felt myself bound, notwithstanding my protest, to go down with the Vesuvius and Hecate, and make a demonstration on the coast, especially as I thought I might render material assistance, by either threatening a descent on the Egyptians’ rear to the southward of Gaza, by which their retreat on El-Arish would be endangered, or in case of the Turks retreating, protecting with the great guns that hazardous operation.

“At 4 A.M. of Friday the 15th, we weighed in the Vesuvius and Hecate, and proceeded as far as Ascalon, when the weather became so thick, and blew so hard, with a heavy increasing sea, that after showing ourselves again off Jaffa, I requested Captain Henderson to run out fifteen or twenty miles for an offing, bank up the fires, and put the vessels under canvass. At 2 A.M. on the 16th, it being then more moderate, we bore up, and at daylight we put the steam on and steered towards Ascalon, but on getting sight of the beach, the surf was so excessive as to preclude all hope of being able to communicate with the shore for many hours to come. We therefore unwillingly returned off Jaffa, where we were not able to effect a landing until sunset, when I found General Michell just returned, having preceded the returning Turkish troops. The Seraskier had reached Jaffa about two hours previous to General Michell.

“I ought to have stated, that by General Michell’s desire, twenty-five marines were embarked on board the Vesuvius under command of Lieutenant Anderson, and a like number on board the Hecate; these have all since been disembarked here.”

General Michell writes to Capt. Stewart^[27], “Mr. Wood is prepared to give us in writing very powerful arguments in favour of a continuation of active offensive operations; his letter from Lord Ponsonby, after Captain Fanshawe’s arrival at Constantinople, is strong upon the subject.” To which Stewart replies^[28], “We know Lord Palmerston’s and the British Government’s wishes and orders. Lord Ponsonby’s orders must with us be subordinate to Lord Palmerston’s; we have promised the Admiral that we will act strictly on precautionary and defensive principles.”

Captain Stewart’s letter to General Jochmus, above referred to, and the reply, were as follow: