Captain Charles Morris appears in Sharpe's Tiger, Triumph, and Fortress. He is an honorless and corrupt man, capable of betraying duty or scruples for a price.
Morris is a morally bankrupt and drunken officer in the 33rd Regiment of Foot's Light Company, he replaced the decent Captain Hughes after the latter's death from dysentery. He prefers not to bother himself with actually commanding the Company and relies on Sergeant Obadiah Hakeswill to run things. His fear of the sergeant and general discontent makes him easily drawn into wrongful appropriation of company property, and other abuses of authority, that are Hakeswill's mainstay.
In 1799, because of a scheme Hakeswill has hatched to sell a young Army widow to a pimp, because she was then attached to Pvt. Sharpe, Morris conspires with Hakeswill to frame Richard Sharpe for assault. The court-marital which follows leads to a sentence of 2,000 lashes for Sharpe. Only the reluctant intervention of the Regiment's commander, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Wellesley, prevents the entire sentence from being carried out. (Sharpe's Tiger)
Four years later Hakeswill becomes convinced Sharpe had looted the Tipu Sultan of his wealth, and is able to manipulate Morris into laying a new charge of assault against Sharpe, by knocking the Captain unconscious himself. This plot is foiled initially by Col. Hector McCandless who knows both Sharpe and Hakeswill well, and then, when Sharpe is given a battlefield commission after the Battle of Assaye, and rises out of Hakeswill's power. (Sharpe's Triumph)
Morris makes an appearance during the assault on the fortress at Gawilghur, when he refuses to lead a detachment of troops over the wall; Sharpe knocks him out, leads the assault, and makes possible the taking of the fortress. (Sharpe's Fortress)
In 1812, when Hakeswill joins the South Essex, he informs Sharpe that Morris is part of the garrison of Dublin Castle in Ireland. (Sharpe's Company)