Napoleon lined his forces up into infantry squares, a tactic which helped repel the Mamluk cavalry, largely due to their inability to penetrate them without suffering severe casualties.

Koraim Pasha had previously sent several urgent missives to Cairo informing the Mameluke leadership of the large landing of French troops nearby.

Dugua had succeeded in pacifying Rosetta and the delta, and purchased a large amount of rice, lentils and other provisions for the advance down to Cairo.

During the stay in Damanhur a small contingent of Mamlukes made an attack on Desaix' division, but was routed with 4 casualties sustained among the French.

The harrowing march of the main columns for Ramaniyah had cost the expedition hundreds of troops, including general Mireur who was assassinated by Bedouins near the camp.

After crossing through Damanhur and acquiring much needed provisions and precious water, the column resumed its march for Ramaniyah, where it was held up by the belated arrival of the riverine column of Dugua and Perrée; the latter taking six days to reach Rosetta instead of the originally projected 3 days long march due to rising tides in the Nile delta.

Murad had been purportedly dismissive of the French invasion, being sure that the barren terrain and lack of provisions and water would wreak havoc among the ranks of the invaders, and his army would only deliver the coup de grace.

Dugua informed him that he disobeyed the order to accompany the laggard flotilla and pressed forward on to Ramaniyah to make the rendezvous in time.

Musketry and cannons were cleaned, polished and tested, uniforms were washed, and soldiers performed drills as necessary, and the officers distributed Napoleon's address to the men, with Napoleon himself going out of his way to address smaller groups of soldiers, and pacifying the malcontents of his army, including many of his officers who had openly discussed the incredulity of his plan and what had seemed to be a suicidal march across a barren desert.

Napoleon learned of this and ordered the army to begin advancing along the Nile, with Desaix' division leading the way, and the twenty five armed vessels of the flotilla shadowing the march.

The sight of the Mamelukes presented a dazzling spectacle to the French, Napoleon later remembered "how the sun touched their helmets and coats of mail, making their fine line glimmer in all its brilliance."

The Mamelukes had maintained a formidable and fearsome reputation in Europe, particularly in France, for hundreds of years, owing to the crushing defeat they had inflicted on St. Louis' crusade during the thirteenth century.

Napoleon ordered his divisions to form up their giant divisional oblong formations; this time six ranks deep instead of the usual three as a precaution against unforeseen Mameluke tactics.

This charge was repulsed by concentrated grapeshot volleys from cannons and several volleys of musketry, a contingent of Mamluks galloped between the squares of Dugua and Reynier, hoping to strike from their rear, but as Napoleon observed; It was noticed that seven commanders, with detachments of selected warriors who served as their guard, gathered at the central point, on a hill; these were the beys who held the council.

But when Murad Bey noticed that the fire from the rear was as strong as from the front, he hastily withdrew... and the Mamelukes retreated, leaving some 60 dead and wounded among the French squares.

His expert knowledge of the Nile enabled him to orchestrate an effective ambush; a simultaneous attack of gunboats, supported by a battery of nine pounder cannons concealed on the banks.

Perree's head elements was attacked and subject to a sharp bombardment from the Mameluke gunboats and river batteries, at approximately the same time the Mamluk cavalry charges began.

[5] Bourienne wrote a grave account of the sight of the enemy boarding their ships;Soon several of our ships had been boarded by the Turks [as the French called the enemy], and before our eyes they began massacring their crews with barbaric ferocity, holding aloft their decapitated heads by the hairThese naval vessels remained under attack from the Mamluk flotilla, along with cannonade & small arms fire from the shore.

A boarding attempt on Le Cerf, Perrée's flagship, was resisted by 300 dismounted cavalrymen who were being ferried on the ships, in a brutal melee.

The battle concluded with, as Perrée and Bourienne would claim, 20 killed and many wounded on the French side, some 1,500 cannon shots had been expended in the engagement on the Nile that lasted from around 8:30 or 9 PM to around noon.

Mamluk dead were ravenously looted, and the valuables each one carried insinuated to the soldiers that this country is not as poor as previously thought owing to the richness of its rulers.