Bernard Cornwell · 2004 · overland

Bernard Cornwell's novel of the Bussaco campaign, 1810. Massena invades Portugal into a country Wellington has deliberately stripped of food. Sharpe holds a ridge, then joins a retreat through a burning Coimbra while conducting a private war against a Portuguese slave trader - and the whole army falls back on earthworks the French do not know exist.

1. 1
   Bussaco

   On the ridge at Bussaco the French come up the slope in column into an army waiting on the reverse side, and are shot off it repeatedly - a defensive victory that changes nothing, because Massena simply goes round.

2. 2
   Coimbra

   The retreat runs through Coimbra, which is sacked as the army passes and the population flees - and in the burning streets Sharpe is trapped in a warehouse cellar by the Ferragus brothers, who have been selling food to the French.

3. 3
   Torres Vedras

   The army falls back behind the Lines of Torres Vedras - a hundred and fifty forts across the peninsula in front of Lisbon, built in secret over a year - and the French advance simply stops in front of them and starves.