Jean-Baptiste Kléber

Born 9 March 1753, Kléber spent a year in the French Royal Army, then seven in the Holy Roman Emperor's forces, where low birth blocked advancement. He joined the Revolutionary Army in 1792 and climbed fast, fighting in the Rhineland during the War of the First Coalition and crushing the Vendée Revolt. After the Treaty of Campo Formio he retired, but returned in 1798 to join Napoleon's invasion of Egypt. When the campaign faltered, Napoleon slipped back to Paris in 1799 and left Kléber in command of all French forces there. On 14 June 1800, a Syrian theology student named Suleiman al-Halabi ki…