This place is called Talavera. There's going to be a battle here tomorrow. You'll fight in it... maybe even die in it. But you won't see it. There's a lot of smoke in a battle. Our cannon, their cannon. Our shot, their shell. Our volleys, their volleys.
You don't see a battle. You *hear* it. Black powder blasting by the ton on all sides. Black smoke blinding you and choking you and making you vomit. Then the French come out of the smoke - not in a line, but in a column. And they march towards our thin line, kettledrums hammering like hell and a golden eagle blazing overhead. They march slowly, and it takes them a long time to reach you, and you can't see them in smoke. But you can hear the drums. They march out of the smoke, and you fire a volley. And the front rank of the column falls, and the next rank steps over them, with drums hammering, and the column smashes your line like a hammer breaking glass... and Napoleon has won another battle. But if you don't run - if you stand until you can smell the garlic, and fire volley after volley, three rounds a minute - then they slow down. They stop. And then they run away. All you've got to do is stand, and fire three rounds a minute. Now, you and I know you can fire three rounds a minute. But can you stand?
Richard Sharpe was born in London around 1776 or 1777 to a prostitute mother and an unknown father. The Sharpe Companion gives his exact birthdate as June 26th, 1777. When Sharpe was three, his mother was killed in the Gordon Riots, leaving him an orphan. With no other known relatives to claim him, Sharpe was deposited in Jem Hocking's foundling home at Brewhouse Lane, Wapping, where he spent his days picking his assigned quota of Oakum. He was regularly beaten and malnuorished, resulting in his being undersized for his age. Because of this, he was eventually sold to a master Chimney Sweep to train as an 'apprentice' at the relatively late age of 12. Fearing the high mortality rate among apprentice sweeps (who were forced to climb up chimneys and remove the soot by hand), Sharpe fled for St. Giles' Rookery, and was taken in by bar-owner and prostitute Maggie Joyce. He stayed under Maggie's protection for three years, learning multiple forms of thieving. After killing a gang leader during a fight over Maggie, he escaped from London to Yorkshire at the age of fifteen. Within six months, Sharpe had killed a second man in a fight over a local girl. Partly as a result of the enticements of recruiting officer Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill, he joined the British Army to avoid the law. His regiment, the 33rd Foot, sometimes known as "The Havercakes" due to a havercake being engraved on the officers' swords (or from the habit of their recruiting sergeants of putting a cake on the end of their swords to attract starving would-be recruits) was first sent to Holland in 1794, where Sharpe fought in his first battle at Boxtel. The next year, he and his regiment were posted to India under the command of the British East India Company.
In 1799, Sharpe was sentenced to 2000 lashes (a death sentence) for striking an officer, but was released after only 200 by executive order. He was assigned to accompany Lieutenant William Lawford on a secret mission to rescue his uncle, intelligence agent Colonel McCandless from Seringapatam. They joined the Tippoo Sultan's army posing as British deserters, but were later exposed and imprisoned. Lawford taught Sharpe to read while imprisoned in the Tippoo's dungeon. Sharpe escaped during the Siege of Seringapatam, killing the Tippoo Sultan after destroying a mine meant to devastate the British army. Sharpe was promoted to Sergeant, as promised, for his successful efforts.Sharpe served four years as Armory Sergeant in Seringapatam. In 1803, while on official business in Chasalgoan he suffered a head wound during a massacre ordered by Lieutenant William Dodd. Shortly afterwards, he was attached to Colonel McCandless on a mission to find and capture Dodd. The mission took him to both Ahmednuggur and the Battle of Assaye, even though the 33rd Foot were not present at either battle. His attachment to McCandless led to his being posted with the top tier of officers during Assaye, and being assigned as temporary aide to Arthur Wellesley (1st Duke of Wellington) after the original staff aide was killed. In the middle of the battle, Wellesley fell from his horse and was set upon by enemy soldiers (a historical event which was never fully documented). Sharpe pushed Wellesley under a nearby cannon and fought off the attackers until safe. For his bravery, Sharpe was given a commission and joined the 74th Regiment as an Ensign. This was a highly unusual event at this time, usually ending in the soldier resigning or turning to drink because the upper class commissioned officers would not accept them. Even Wellesley himself did not grant Sharpe any special honours or unearned promotions after this point. Difficult though his position was - he was neither one of the men nor a 'true officer' - he soldiered on, but he still could not gain acceptance in his new regiment. Eventually his superiors arrange for him to be transferred to the newly formed 95th Rifles Regiment. Before leaving India, he also took part in the assault on Gawilghur. Inside the fortress, Sharpe finally found and confronted Dodd, receiving a scar on his left cheek that would define his appearance in the future.
Campaigns in Portugal, Spain and France
Returning from India in 1805, Sharpe was caught up in the Battle of Trafalgar. This was his first encounter with France and her allies. This adventure also introduced him to Lady Grace Hale, with whom he fell in love. After her husband's death, Grace and Sharpe set up house and lived an upper class life together using only earnings, since hers were wrapped up in her husband's estate. When Grace died giving birth to Sharpe's son, who died almost immediately afterwards, the son was assumed by her brother's lawyers to belong to Grace's ex-husband. As such, the late Lord Hale's estate was able to confiscate all Sharpe's wealth - including the house he had bought with the pile of jewels he took from the Tippoo Sultan and placed in Grace's name under the assumption that it had been bought with Grace's money and that her son had succeeded her as heir. At Grace's death, Sharpe fell into a deep depression and laxity that led to him being relegated to Quartermaster of the Rifles. In 1807, Sharpe unsuccessfully attempted to sell his commission, and found himself back in London. While there, he finally killed Jem Hocking, the master of his old foundling home.
In London, he encountered an old officer in India, and was assigned on a special mission to protect an agent sent to treat with the Danish Crown Prince. During this mission, he was present for the Battle of Copenhagen and the British capture of the Danish fleet (to prevent Napoleon Bonaparte from taking it). Even though the 95th Rifles fought in the battle, Sharpe failed to rejoin the regiment, and carried on with his secret duties. After this, Sharpe headed for Portugal and the Peninsular War, finally showing his leadership abilities after all the more senior officers of his company were killed in an ambush during the retreat to Portugal in 1809. Upon returning to Portugal (where he first met Michael Hogan, the head of intelligence for Wellesley), the surviving riflemen became the light company of the South Essex Regiment. While assigned to the South Essex, Sharpe performed a number of heroic feats either in the service of Hogan, or in order to gain promotion through the officer ranks. In order to keep command of the light company, Sharpe undertook the capture of a French Imperial Eagle at the Battle of Talavera in 1809. In order to secure further promotion, he was the first over the breach at Badajoz. Over time, he gradually took unofficial command of the entire regiment. Before the Battle of Toulouse, Sharpe was sent to capture a fort in the 'Bassin D'Arcachon', the Teste de Buch just below Bordeaux. During this time Sharpe faced one of his most dangerous situations yet: he found himself trapped in the fort due to Pierre Ducos' planning after capturing it, and was faced with numerous heavy attacks on the fort by General Calvet. He eventually escaped from this dire situation due to the help of an American privateer, Cornelius Killick. He acted as Brigade Major at the Battle of Toulouse. The chronologically antepenultimate story recounts Sharpe's involvement in the famous Battle of Waterloo. During the battle, Sharpe finally became a substantive Lieutenant Colonel in command of the South Essex.
In the final book, Sharpe's Devil, Sharpe was commissioned by the Countess of Mouromorto to travel to South America to find out what happened to her husband Don Blas Vivar, who had disappeared while acting as Spanish Captain General in Chile; Blas Vivar had been a principal character in the events of Sharpe's Rifles. As usual, he was accompanied by his Sergeant, later Regimental Sergeant Major, in Sharpe's Regiment (and friend) Patrick Harper. Enroute they stopped to visit the imprisoned Napoleon Bonaparte on Saint Helena. In Chile, he teams up with the historical character Lord Cochrane.
