Plancenoit, a model for Fuentes de Oñoro (3 Viewers)

[Spitfrnd]

It would make a great movie. You show the action in the town itself and scale down the action to a manageable level for the camera and still tell a large story.

I was reminded of this again today while re-reading the account of the battle in Michael Glover's The Peninsula War 1807-1814. Glover quotes this interesting exchange between Edward Pakenham, the Duke's brother-in-law and then Deputy Adjutant General, and Colonel Wallace, commander of the Rangers as the French have just driven the Highlanders out of the town:

Do you see that Wallace?
I do, replied the colonel, and I would rather drive the French out of the town than cover a retreat over the Coa.
Perhaps, said Sir Edward, his Lordship don't think it tenable.
I shall take it with my regiment and keep it too.
Will you, replied Pakenham, I'll go and tell Lord Wellington.
In a moment, Pakenham returned at the gallop and called out, He says you may go, come along Wallace.

Great stuff, certainly calls out for representation.

 

[Spitfrnd]

Ah! Just start from the beginning at Sharpe's Tiger and learn a little about Wellington in India. The development of the characters is very well done. Sharpe's Rifles is still probably my favorite, although Sharpe's Regiment gives an insight to English society.
I would like to see a series from the French perspective.

I was messing about at the Napoleon Series website and it turns out what you would like does in fact exist. The Bonaparte Series By Richard Howard chronicles the adventures of Alain Lausard, a sergeant in the French dragoons. In a conscious reversal of the formula followed in Bernard Cornwell's "Sharpe" series, Lausard is a former aristocrat who had turned thief in order to survive the ravages of the Revolution. See the review of the fourth book for more:
http://www.napoleon-series.org/reviews/fiction/c_howard.html

 

[Spitfrnd]

Re: Plancenoit, a model for Fuentes

I know it is unlikely and I am not sure I could afford it if they were to do it but can you imagine the First Legion treatment of Ramsay's famous escape of the guns at Fuentes de Oñoro?