"Sharpe's Skirmish" is a historical short story by Bernard Cornwell in the Richard Sharpe series. "Sharpe's Skirmish" was first written in 1998. British bookseller W. H. Smith devised the idea of giving away a Sharpe short story with every copy of Sharpe's Fortress. This irritated other publishers, and only a few thousand copies were printed. Much later, Cornwell revised the story, which was published by the Sharpe Appreciation Society.