Hi, Bernard. I asked you a question about Starbuck a month or so ago, but now I have a question about Sharpe. In many of your Sharpe books you mention officers giving the order to fix bayonets. For many years I had never noticed this, but upon re-reading in the series I have. According to a friend of mine, by that era line-infantry would fight battles with their bayonets already fixed, but I argued that that didn’t seem likely in accordance with your description of the scraped knuckles from such reloading. Had you done research into this subject, and did they indeed fight without bayonets fixed for the most part?

Joseph Calderon