Jean-Baptiste Kleber (9 March 1753-14 June 1800) was a general of the First French Republic, although he first served under the Austrian Empire. He took part in the Egyptian Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars from 1798 to 1800 and was assassinated by a student in Cairo.
Biography[]
Kleber was educated in the college of Munich and obtained a commission in the Austrian army in 1783 but could not be promoted because he was of humble birth. He resigned and returned to France, and in 1792 joined volunteers during the French Revolution. In the 1790s he served as Jean-Baptiste Jourdan's most successful lieutenant and fought at the Battle of Fleurus, but his most notable role was achieved when he took part in the Egyptian Campaign in 1798.
He was given command of a division by General Napoleon Bonaparte and suffered a head wound during the siege of Alexandria, hindering his ability to fight. He missed the Battle of the Pyramids and remained in Alexandria as its governor until the Syrian campaign of 1799 against the Ottoman Empire. During this theater of the War of the Second Coalition he won at the Battle of Mount Tabor, and he also defeated the Ottomans at the gates of Damascus. He recaptured Cairo from the Mamelukes in 1800, and he remained in the city for a long while.
Kleber was assassinated while walking through a garden by student Suleiman El-Halaby. He was knifed in the heart, stomach, left arm, and right cheek, and Halaby fled. He was later shot by French militiants and beheaded. Kleber died on the same day as Louis Charles Antoine Desaix, his friend and comrade, who died in the Battle of Marengo in Italy.
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