This Blog

It's been 3 years, 4 months, and 22 days since I began this journey across land and sea. I have read 21 Aubrey & Maturin books and 24 Sharpe books, mostly in quasi-historical order. Basically one book per month as it happens. Some were shorter than others, of course.

I have come to love these tales of military adventure, set in the early 1800s. I have learned a lot about the British Navy and Army of the era. I have sailed around the world and experienced, second hand, thankfully, all sorts of trials and tribulations: countless battles, ship wrecks, fires, explosions, cannon fire, musket volleys, bayonet charges, and full on broadsides. Injuries, sickness, death, love, and loss.

If pressed, I'd have to say I liked the Aubrey/Maturin books slightly better, but it's a close call. I have a great fondness for the characters of Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Richard Sharpe, and Patrick Harper. Farewell, friends!

Sharpe's Devil

Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper in South America, c. 1820

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Sharpe is recruited by an old acquaintance (from Sharpe's Rifles) to find out what happened to another old acquaintance; a certain Spaniard, Captain-General Don Blas Vivar. The good general was last seen in Chile, leading the fight to quell the rebellious locals on behalf of Spain.

Another local Spanish strongman, Miguel Bautista, has taken over Don Blas's Captain-Generalship, and Sharpe's old acquaintance, Louisa Vivar, wants her husband back. She is convinced that he is not dead. All other authorities will not assist...so she contacts an off-duty Sharpe. Good choice.

Harper takes a break from running an Irish pub, and joins with his old best friend. Strangely, Harper is now fat. Huh. Too much beer, Sharpe thinks. Don't worry, the terrible naval food found on board an Atlantic-crossing ship will take care of that extra weight soon enough (mostly).

En route the ship stops by the island of Elba to visit with...you guessed it...old Boney himself. It seems the British had him under tight lock-down in a small moldering house atop a hill on an island in the middle of nowhere (but didn't outright kill him). He was even allowed to entertain visitors, to some extent. Apparently it was very popular for ships to stop there and request an audience with the former Emperor.

Harper and Sharpe have all sorts of para-military adventures on land and sea, inadvertently participating in ship battles and sieges and running for their lives. Horses. Cannon. Gunpowder. Blood. Very common in these books, even here, at the end of the run.

Richard and Patrick come back, having satisfied their mission, and retire; Sharpe to France and Harper to Ireland. As far as the author knows, they lived happily ever after.

Waterloo

Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper survive the downfall of Napoleon, June 1815

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The good old Duke of Wellington finally got his chance to face ol' Boney. It was a very tight run affair, but we know who came out on top without requiring a Spoiler Alert. Sharpe and Harper both play minor roles in the battle, as the long day of death and violence that was Sunday, June 18, 1815, progresses.

The people of Brussels (15km north) were on the doorstep to the battle. Napoleon marched quickly to force himself into position between two allies armies: the British and the Prussians, hoping to fight them separately before they joined. It almost worked. The Prussians were brushed aside first, then the British made their stand, knowing that the retreating Prussians were going to back them up. Eventually.

What an astounding battle! Waves of cavalry! Hordes of infantry! Masses of cannon! All packed into a cramped valley between two ridges. In the end, when it mattered most, it was the French method of unstoppable columns versus the British method of fragile lines of overwhelming, fast musket fire. The result was the same as usual: the thin red line holds (just barely) while pouring a rolling torrent of musket balls into the column. They can't miss. The column can only bring a fraction of it's firepower to bear. The dead pile up, but the drums keep beating and the men in back keep pushing and it becomes an increasingly murderous situation. After the column is halted and the musket butchery has had some time to do it's worst, the thin red line declares a bayonet charge into the smoke and death to rout the confused and panicking enemy. 

Even the much vaunted Imperial Guard, veterans all, the lapdogs of the Emperor, couldn't force a different outcome. Up to this point, they had been undefeated. Because they had not yet fought the British!

Napoleon started with 73,000 men. Around 25,000 were killed or wounded, including 6500 captured. A further 15,000 missing. The French left this battle with just 45% of the men who started it!

Wellington started with 68,000 men. He lost 3500 killed, 10,200 wounded, and 3300 missing.

The battle proved decisive in ending the era of French dominance that began with the French Revolution in the early 1790s. Basically two decades of war on land and sea. Napoleon announced his second abdication on June 24, 1815; less than a week after this epic battle.