“The British army fought against other infantry arrayed in two ranks and every man could use his musket, and if cavalry threatened they marched and wheeled into a square of four ranks, and still every man could use his musket, but the soldiers at the heart of the two French columns could never fire without hitting the men in front.”

— Bernard Cornwell

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe, p. 226
Sharpe (Novel Series), Sharpe's Havoc (2003)

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Bernard Cornwell 175

British writer 1944

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“He could chafe against the rich and privileged but he acknowledged that the army had taken him from the gutter and put an officer's sash round his waiste and Sharpe could think of no other job that would offer a low-born bastard on the run from the law the chance of rank and responsibility.”

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Bernard Cornwell 175

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