Sharpe's Rifles
Bernard Cornwell
 The story recounts Sharpe's exploits in the retreat to Corunna. Sharpe's battalion, acting as rearguard to the army, are cut down by a squadron of French regular cavalry. From then on the story follows the small band of surviving riflemen (from the 95th Rifles) as they try to foment an uprising in the city of Santiago de Compostela. Sharpe's Spanish ally is Major Don Blas Vivar and they are fighting the Don's brother, the Count of Mouromorto. Patrick Harper is introduced as well as the core group of the surviving company for the first time. Running along in the background is the other Irishman in the series, Captain Hogan, who appears for the first time at the very end of the novel. In this book, Sharpe sees Captain Murray's heavy cavalry sword as clumsy and cumbersome, yet in India he wishes he had such a heavy sword to butcher people with. During his time in India he used a claymore which he found less cumbersome than the cavalry sword.