Sharpe, book 1: Sharpe's Tiger
Bernard Cornwell1997

The novel describes the adventures of the raw young private soldier Richard Sharpe in India, before the Peninsular War. Sharpe and the rest of his battalion, along with the rising star of the general staff Arthur Wellesley, are about to embark upon the siege of Seringapatam, island citadel of the Tippoo of Mysore.
When a senior british officer is captured by the Tippoo's forces, Sharpe is offered a chance to attempt a rescue, a chance he snatches in order to escape from the tyrannical Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill. But in fleeing Hakeswill he enters the confusing, exotic and dangerous world of the Tippoo, and Sharpe will need all his wits just to stay alive, let alone save the British army from catastrophe.