Page 49 - Ranger Demo

I am desirous that no time should be lost in completing the Reconnaissance ... and I request that you will transmit to me a rough Outline or Tracing of it, in case you should not be able to prepare the finished Sketch in a short time.
He was also very clear in his identification of his primary responsibilities for the movement and quartering of troops, and how topographical reconnaissance should serve these ends. His orders constantly emphasis that priority had to be given to the collection of data for these purposes.
A young officer, fresh from High Wycombe and attached for a time to the QMG’s Department at Headquarters and understanding less of the problems facing Murray, wrote critically,
The great object with him is to gain an accurate report of a country, its roads, soil, rivers, etc., and the means it possesses of affording shelter for the Army. He employs everybody at this; I have been at nothing else for the past month, but as to the features of the country, or its ground, he does not wish anything of the sort to be introduced into these sketches. The primary object with him is moving the Troops and Artillery, and afterwards a complete knowledge of the local situation of the Villages, etc., with reference to Cantonment.
The same writer, however, makes it clear that Murray was capable of appreciating a well-finished sketch with elegant relief portrayal,
He rather admires the drawing of Sturgeon who used the vertical style and makes his plans highly finished; he consequently desired Sturgeon to make a plan of Busaco, to which everybody was to contribute, that is to say, each assistant was to send a sketch of his part of the line, and Sturgeon was to put it together in his own style ...
The informed and ‘scientific’ approach to military problems by the reformed QMG’s Department at the Horse Guards, with its Depot of Military Knowledge included a concern for military history. Murray’s own interest in this field (he later edited Marlborough’s despatches) made him a willing helper and when time and opportunity permitted he had plans made of the sites of battles and other engagements. The plan of Busaco referred to above is presumably an example since the letter quoted was written about a month after that action. Other cases can be found among Murray’s instructions: in November 1809 he despatched Sturgeon and Stavely of the Royal Staff Corps to sketch;
the ground in the neighbourhood of Talavera, including the position occupied by the British and Spanish armies during the Battle of the 27th and 28th July,
and in October 1811 Capt. Pierrepont, one of the regimental officers attached to the QMG’s Department as a DAQMG (he later relinquished his regimental commission and joined the corps of Permanent Assistants) was given instructions;
respecting the Ground to be sketched for the purpose of shewing the several Affairs with the Enemy during the Retreat of Marshal Massena’s Army out of Portugal in Spring 1811.
Perhaps because of their historical interest, such maps and plans of battles and military movements survive in archives in much greater numbers than the mapping prepared for staff planning and operational purposes; maps of this latter type were probably destroyed when replaced later by better topographical surveys. Murray, however, was very properly concerned with their preservation while they might still be needed for military use. We find him writing from Headquarters at Celorico to the subordinate office which he maintained at the base in Lisbon,
The cloth you sent for pasting plans upon is too coarse for the purpose and is of Cotton instead of Linen. I beg you will send six yard more of Linen and of a Quality considerably finer and charge it in your next Contingent Account.
The systematic cataloguing of the topographical records was likewise carried out. Several lists of material sent back from Headquarters to Lisbon survive and neat lists of reports, books, maps and plans held in the QMG’s office there are to be found among Murray’s papers. He ensured too that the central topographical intelligence function of the Depot of Military Knowledge in London was properly supported; he wrote on one occasion,
47