I have to admit I’m a fan of your books, ever since the first Sharpe adventure. Those and the Archer ones I’ve read, re-read and read again. Like you I fell in love with Historical Fiction when in the second or third grade I found “Beat to Quarters” by Forrester and “The Unvanquished” by Howard Fast. Those two along with my Grandmother’s stories of Robin Hood and others set me on the road to much reading and a love of History. During these days of “plague” or in modern parlance, pandemic, I’ve been doing loads of reading, just ending the re-read of all the Sharpe novels, with as much pleasure as the very first time; in fact I had a difficult time putting them down once started. In the reading of the descriptions of the battles regarding the firing of the muskets I noticed that you gave in the various books two differing methods of loading, And as you do so very much research in the development of your work I wondered if you had ever had the opportunity to actually shoot a Brown Bess? I, back in the “70’and ’80’s was involved in a recreated British Regiment, The 60th of Foot, The Royal Americans. That Regiment was chosen because they were posted in ST Augustine during the Revolution. Our Drill guides from the 1770 period had the loading sequence of biting the cartridge, priming, then pouring the powder down the barrel finishing by ramming the cartridge home. That was what you described in some books but in others you had the priming last, a process that would not have resulted in the rapid fire that British Regiments were able to do. Thus the question. In all else you’ve been great,
Cheers and stay safe and well,
Terry Robertson