Napoleon's Classmate Engineered Acre's Defense

In 1783, a 16-year-old French cadet named Antoine de Phélippeaux met Napoleon Bonaparte at the École Militaire (military academy) in Paris. Napoleon resented Phélippeaux's stronger classroom performance, and their quarrels became physical enough that a sergeant major was kicked while separating them. Roughly 15 years later, British colonel Phélippeaux strengthened Acre's walls, built trenches, excavated its moat, and installed artillery captured from the French. The defenders forced Napoleon to abandon the 1799 Siege of Acre, handing him the first major strategic defeat of his military career.

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