Sharpe's Battle — Bernard Cornwell

Spain 1811

As Napoleon threatens to crush Britain on the battlefield, Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe leads a ragtag army to exact personal revenge against a French general known for his acts of terror.

Sharpe's Battle takes Richard Sharpe and his company back to the spring of 1811 and one of the most bitter battles of the Peninsular War, a battle on which all British hopes of victory in Spain will depend. Sharpe is given responsibility to lead an Irish battalion of the king of Spain's household guard, ceremonial troops untrained and unequipped for battle. While quartered in the crumbling fort of San Isidro, they are attacked by murderous Brigadier General Guy Luop's elite French brigade. Sharpe has witnessed General Loup's despicable was crimes before; to put an end to them, and to settle another more personal score, Sharpe must lead his company into the blood-gutted streets of Fuentes de Onoro, where thousands of French troops have amassed, in a battle to the death.