Departure for Egypt

Life in Bombay in the early months of 1801 was frantic with the preparations for sending an expeditionary force of 8000 men from India to the Red Sea. It was planned to join forces with troops from Britain, Turkey and the Mediterranean, in a three-pronged campaign to drive out the French from Egypt. The logistical challenges were enormous, requiring the loading of twenty-five transport ships with sufficient livestock, grain, forage, water, stores, ordnance and ammunition to effect a desert march from the shores of the Red Sea to the Nile and to meet in Cairo or Alexandria.

The Indian army was to be commanded by Major-General David Baird, with Colonel Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington) as his second-in-command. On the 31 March Baird offered Macquarie a post on his staff as Deputy Adjutant-General to the 8000-strong army - a position and promotion that Macquarie readily accepted. This appointment was not without future complications (as had been the demotion of Wellesley to the rank of second-in-command to Baird) but for the moment, Macquarie was excited by the possibilities. It marked the beginning of a life-time friendship with Baird, and, more importantly, raised the possibility that Lachlan would be able to meet his younger brother, Charles, in Egypt. Charles was a captain in the 42nd Regiment of Foot quartered on Gibraltar, and there was a strong likelihood that the 42nd would form part of the Mediterranean contingents led by General Sir Robert Abercrombie. The brothers had last seen each other thirteen years ago, on 7 February 1788, in Scotland.

On 6 April Macquarie sailed with Baird on the transport William for the Red Sea. The expeditionary force consisted (eventually) of 7886 European and Sepoy troops and ancillary staff. It was drawn from King's Regiments and Honourable East India Company (HEIC) regiments in the three Presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay, as well as contingents from Ceylon and the Cape, and also included 400 gun Lascars and 666 native followers.

The transcripts of Macquarie's Egyptian campaign journal are currently under development, but will not be available through this website until 2010.