Sharpes command, p.26
Sharpe's Command, page 26
Luckily the British force that had captured Fort Napoleon contained a Lieutenant Love of the Royal Artillery and twenty gunners. They manned the captured cannon on the ramparts of Fort Napoleon and opened fire on Fort Ragusa. The result was panic among the French, who simply abandoned the northern fort and fled. Some small boats had been seen on that northern shore and British infantrymen swam the river to bring them back and so enough men were able to cross the Tagus and occupy the abandoned Fort Ragusa which, like Fort Napoleon, was slighted with powder captured from the French. The shattered remnants of both forts can be seen today.
It will be obvious from that account of the Almaraz expedition that I have taken great liberties to keep Sharpe occupied. The presence of twenty experienced men from the Royal Artillery would mean that Lieutenant Love had no need of Sharpe and his men to act as matrosses. More egregiously there is no mention in any of the accounts that the French had a small encampment at the old broken bridge, but it did not seem unreasonable to me that they might have had such a place from which they would attempt to repair the shattered span and it would make a fine target for Sharpe.
I make no apology for including fiction in a novel that celebrates General Hill’s achievement; my business is fiction. Equally fictional is El Héroe, who did not exist, and to many might seem a most unlikely character. The Spanish partisans, after all, are known for their visceral hatred of the French and their massive contribution to the expulsion of the French from Spain. Yet there were partisans who betrayed their own side, such as Josef Tris, El Malcarado, ‘the false-faced’, who sold valuable information to the French, and was eventually executed by the great Francisco Espoz y Mina, one of the most formidable partisan leaders.
Even without my fictional embellishments, the Almaraz expedition was a resounding success. General Hill had led his force deep into Spain, cut the only practicable link between Marmont and Soult, and then withdrew safely to the British lines. And he achieved that with an extremely light casualty list. The total British and allied casualties, either killed or wounded, was 189 men, while the French lost at least 400, while another 279 were taken as prisoners. The road into Spain and eventual victory was now open and, later in the same year, Wellington would lead his army to the stunning triumph at Salamanca.
Daddy Hill was one of the few Generals trusted by Wellington, and he had rewarded that trust with his success at Almaraz. When in 1814 he was rewarded with a peerage he chose as his title Baron Hill of Almaraz and of Hawkstone (the village of his birth in Shropshire). Three years after the battle of Almaraz he was to be present at Waterloo where, again, he distinguished himself. Hill’s reputation was enhanced by the affection of the soldiers of Britain’s army who recognised in Hill a man who prized them, admired them and looked after them.
Sharpe is one of those soldiers and he will march again and, because he is a rifleman, that means he will march to victory.
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About the Author
Bernard Cornwell was born in London, raised in Essex and worked for the BBC for eleven years before meeting Judy, his American wife. Denied an American work permit, he wrote a novel instead and has been writing ever since. He and Judy divide their time between Cape Cod and Charleston, South Carolina.
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Also by Bernard Cornwell
The SHARPE Series
SHARPE’S TIGER (1799)
SHARPE’S TRIUMPH (1803)
SHARPE’S FORTRESS (1803)
SHARPE’S TRAFALGAR (1805)
SHARPE’S PREY (1807)
SHARPE’S RIFLES (1809)
SHARPE’S HAVOC (1809)
SHARPE’S EAGLE (1809)
SHARPE’S GOLD (1810)
SHARPE’S ESCAPE (1811)
SHARPE’S FURY (1811)
SHARPE’S BATTLE (1811)
SHARPE’S COMPANY (1812)
SHARPE’S SWORD (1812)
SHARPE’S ENEMY (1812)
SHARPE’S HONOUR (1813)
SHARPE’S REGIMENT (1813)
SHARPE’S SIEGE (1814)
SHARPE’S REVENGE (1814)
SHARPE’S WATERLOO (1815)
SHARPE’S ASSASSIN (1815)
SHARPE’S DEVIL (1820–21)
Short stories
SHARPE’S SKIRMISH
SHARPE’S RANSOM
SHARPE’S CHRISTMAS
Also by Bernard Cornwell
THE LAST KINGDOM SERIES
(FORMERLY THE WARRIOR CHRONICLES)
THE LAST KINGDOM
THE PALE HORSEMAN
THE LORDS OF THE NORTH
SWORD SONG
THE BURNING LAND
DEATH OF KINGS
THE PAGAN LORD
THE EMPTY THRONE
WARRIORS OF THE STORM
THE FLAME BEARER
WAR OF THE WOLF
SWORD OF KINGS
WAR LORD
UHTRED’S FEAST
AZINCOURT
THE GRAIL QUEST SERIES
HARLEQUIN
VAGABOND
HERETIC
1356
STONEHENGE
THE FORT
THE STARBUCK CHRONICLES
REBEL
COPPERHEAD
BATTLE FLAG
THE BLOODY GROUND
THE WARLORD CHRONICLES
THE WINTER KING
THE ENEMY OF GOD
EXCALIBUR
FOOLS AND MORTALS
GALLOWS THIEF
A CROWNING MERCY
FALLEN ANGELS
(Originally published under the name Susannah Kells, the pseudonym of Bernard Cornwell and his wife, Judy.)
Non-Fiction
WATERLOO: THE HISTORY OF FOUR DAYS, THREE ARMIES AND THREE BATTLES
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Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Command
