"Sharpe's Skirmish" is a historical short story by

Bernard Cornwell Bernard Cornwell (born 23 February 1944) is an English-American author of historical novels and a history of the Waterloo Campaign. He is best known for his novels about Napoleonic Wars rifleman Richard Sharpe. He has also written ''The Saxon ...

in the Richard Sharpe series. "Sharpe's Skirmish" was first written in 1998. British bookseller

W. H. Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

devised the idea of giving away a Sharpe short story with every copy of '' Sharpe's Fortress''. This irritated other publishers, and only a few thousand copies were printed. Much later, Cornwell revised the story, which was published by the Sharpe Appreciation Society.

Plot

This short story occurs after ''Sharpe's Sword'' in the summer of 1812. Sharpe and his men escort commissary Major Tubbs to an abandoned Spanish fort where a cache of thousands of muskets has been forgotten in the general French retreat in northern Spain. Unbeknownst to the British, French Major Ducos has authorised a surprise raid to threaten the Duke of Wellington's supply lines and hopefully delay the British pursuit long enough for the French to regroup. To accomplish this, the French first need to secure the fort, which guards a bridge across the

Tormes The Tormes is a Spanish river, that starts in Prado Tormejón, in the mountain range of Gredos, Navarredonda de Gredos, province of Ávila. It crosses the provinces of Avila and Salamanca, ending at the Duero river, at a place known locally as Am ...

River. However, Sharpe stands in the way, and for the first (but by no means last) time thwarts a scheme involving Ducos.

Characters in "Sharpe's Skirmish"

* Captain Richard Sharpe – rifle captain in the British army, commanding the Light Company of the South Essex Regiment * Teresa Moreno – Sharpe's wife, a Spanish partisan *Sergeant Patrick Harper – Sharpe's right-hand man and friend *Major Michael Hogan – an engineer and Wellington's head of intelligence *Lieutenant-General

Sir Arthur Wellesley Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister of ...

– commander of the British army in Spain

Allusions to actual history, geography and current science

References are made to incidents during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

and the Siege of Gawilghur. Lieutenant General Wellington was based on the real historical figure of the same name with limited dramatic licence taken.

Publication history

*1999, UK,

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News C ...

Pub date 1 March 1999, Limited Edition Paperback *2002, UK
Sharpe Appreciation Society
, Pub date 2 September 2002, Revised Extended Paperback Edition

References

External links

Section from Bernard Cornwell's website on ''Sharpe's Skirmish''

Sharpe Appreciation Society

Read on-line
{{Bernard Cornwell 1999 short stories

Skirmish Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...

Historical short stories Short stories by Bernard Cornwell HarperCollins books