By early 1809, Sharpe is in Spain with the 95th Rifles, his men serving as the rearguard of the retreat to Corunna. Captain Murray is mortally wounded and leaves his heavy cavalry sword to Sharpe, giving him his signature weapon used in all the subsequent books. Cut off from the main body of the army, he is forced to take command of a handful of surviving but mutinous riflemen (including Patrick Harper), while protecting a small party of English missionaries. He encounters Spanish Major Blas Vivar and his partisans and unwillingly helps them temporarily seize control of the city of Santiago de Compostela so that Vivar can raise a sacred gonfalon to bolster the Spanish people's flagging morale ("Sharpe's Rifles"). Sharpe's surviving riflemen that begin the retreat to Corunna are: