985 



RECONNOISSANCE. 



RECORDER. 



68 



officer may be provided with a general map, or an itinerary of the 

 intended route, as an outline for hia guidance ; and his survey, when 

 completed, should be accompanied by a report or memoir, stating in 

 detail what cannot be conveniently represented on the plan. Iii this 

 report should be expressed, with all necessary references to the plan of 

 the ground, the distances, by the different routes, between the two 

 positions, and the places where troops may halt for repose or to form 

 in order of battle, distinguishing particularly the plains where cavalry 

 may act, and the heights on which artillery may be placed. The 

 nature of the roads should be described, with indications denoting 

 that they are passable for artillery, for cavalry, or merely for infantry ; 

 and if defective, estimates should be made of the materials and time 

 requisite for repairing them. It is particularly necessary to state 

 whether the ascents and descents are gentle or abrupt ; and, when the 

 road is on the side of a hill, whether it is sufficiently level to allow 

 artillery or carriages to pass safely. It should also be noticed whether 

 or not, at places where roads run through towns, they are reduced to 

 narrow and winding streets. The breadths and velocities of rivers, 

 streams, and canals which cross the lines of march should be ascer- 

 tained, and a statement made whether the beds are rocky, gravelly, or 

 muddy ; also whether the banks are high or low. Mention should also 

 be made of the means which exist for passing them ; of the places 

 where they are fordable, where there are ferries or bridges, or where 

 boats may be procured : descriptions should also be given of the 

 bridges or boats, and the manner of working the latter. The situations 

 and extent of marshes should also be shown, and it should be stated 

 whether they are passable or can be made so. In contemplating rivers 

 and marshes as means of retarding an advance of the enemy, it should 

 be ascertained and reported whether, by being dry in summer or frozen 

 in winter, they may not at times cease to be obstacles. It should also 

 be stated how, on a retreat, the roads may be blocked up, the fords 

 rendered impassable, or the bridges destroyed. 



Should a sufficient number of roads for the different columns not 

 exist, the officer is to ascertain whether or not others may be made by 

 cutting through hedges, walls, or woods, by forming causeways over 

 marshes, or by constructing or repairing bridges over rivers or streams ; 

 and also whether the country affords the materials necessary for these 

 purposes. The rates at which it is possible for troops to march in the 

 several roads, denies, &c., must be estimated according to the breadth 

 of the latter or the degree of their practicability ; for on a right esti- 

 mate of such rate, together with the known length of the road, depend 

 the number of battalions and the class of troops which ought to be 

 appointed to follow each particular route, when it is required that the 

 different columns should arrive at the same time in some given 

 position. The plan should show the situations of farms, mills, houses, 

 Ac., which may be capable of being defended or of affording quarters 

 for the troops ; and on it should be indicated, by some scale of numbers 

 or otherwise, the relative heights of the ground, that it may be ascer- 

 tained what positions can be occupied with advantage for offensive or 

 defensive operations. The representation of a simple line of march 

 should also indicate the places where roads diverge from or cross the 

 route, with the distances of the nearest towns or villages from thence ; 

 and any particular survey of the ground for an encampment should 

 extend to at least a mile every way beyond the supposed chain of out- 

 posts. [MILITARY POSITIONS ; PIQUET.] The report must state what 

 are the resources of the country in com, cattle, and forage ; and the 

 number of carriages, horses, and other draught animals that it may 

 furnish for the conveyance of artillery and stores. If the line of march 

 is in the direction of a navigable river which may be available for the 

 last-mentioned purpose, it will be necessary to ascertain its breadth 

 and rapidity, and also the obstructions which may be met with from 

 shallows, weirs, &c. Marshal Suchet caused his artillery to be con- 

 veyed by the Ebro from Mequinenza to Xerta, in 1810, preparatory to 

 forming the siege of Tortoea. 



An open country presents the greatest facilities for reconnoitring, 

 since the positions of its towns or villages, and the directions of its 

 roads and rivers, can then be easily distinguished and represented on 

 paper. A tract covered with wood is not only surveyed with difficulty, 

 but it imposes on the officer, in addition, the necessity of ascertaining 

 all the directions in which it is capable of being penetrated by the 

 fiic'iny, and in what manner the passes may be blocked up or defended. 

 Open plains intermingled with wood, fields surrounded by hedges, 

 ground intersected by streams of water, ravines, and hollow ways, 

 demand great exactness in the survey, since such tracts afford the most 

 important advantages, both in the higher and in the secondary opera- 

 tions of warfare, to the army which is best acquainted with their 

 details. They allow troops to pass unseen from one point to another 

 when a surprise is attempted or a rapid retreat is to be made ; they 

 also afford cover from whence the enemy may be annoyed with little 

 loss. In mountainous districts it is important to ascertain the forms 

 and directions of the chains of heights, with their acclivities 

 on both sides ; and, if the line of march is between them, the 

 collateral ravines should be examined to a considerable distance : 

 the commencements and directions of the ravines should also be 

 shown, and all the defiles by which the valleys communicate with each 

 other. Through these defiles troops detached from the army are 

 enabled to fall suddenly on the enemy during his march, to sepa- 

 rate hi* columns, and intercept his supplies or cut off his retreat ; 



and, ou the other hand, since the enemy may attempt the like 

 measures, it becomes necessary that the officer employed to recon- 

 noitre should ascertain by what means the passes may be barricaded, 

 either to impede the enemy or enable the troops to defend themselves. 



In reconnoitring a country, when it is intended to act on the defen- 

 sive, it should be well known by what roads the enemy can penetrate, 

 aud where are the best situations for forming intrenched camps or 

 establishing posts in order to be enabled to keep the field and cover 

 the magazines. Again, if it be intended to carry the war into an 

 enemy's country, it is necessary to discover the position occupied by. 

 his array ; to find the tract of country most proper for the march, and 

 the spots where the localities permit encampments to be formed with 

 due support oil the flanks and security in the rear. If it be intended 

 to besiege a fortress or to attack the enemy's position, the reconnois- 

 sance may be made quite up to the glacis of the place, or to the works 

 which protect the position. In the former case it is necessary to 

 ascertain the nature of the fortifications, and the fitness of the ground 

 about them for the operations of the siege ; and in the latter, to find 

 out the strength and dispositions of the enemy's troops. An armed 

 force is generally required on these occasions, as, in order to approach 

 near enough for the purpose, it may be necessary to drive in some of 

 the outposts. During the war which ended in 1814, the English and 

 French out-sentries appear to have entertained a mutual understand- 

 ing not to molest each other, and to retire to their supports before 

 they commenced firiug when either army was about to make a move- 

 ment. Colonel Napier relates that Lord Wellington, being once 

 desirous of reconnoitring the enemy's position at Bayonne, ordered his 

 escort to fire upon some of the enemy who occupied the top of a hill 

 which he wished to ascend ; but one of the men going up to the 

 French soldiers and tapping his musket in a particular way, the latter, 

 who understood the signal, quietly withdrew. 



In a maritime reconnaissance the circumstances which it is of most 

 importance to ascertain are : whether the coast is rocky or bordered 

 by downs, and what is the state of the bays or roads with respect to 

 shelter from the prevailing winds; the seasons in which winds blow off 

 and on the shore, and whether the anchorage is secure or otherwise ; 

 the nature of the tides, the hours of high and low water, and the 

 depth at either of those times. Precise information should also be 

 obtained of the places at which troops might laud, and where there 

 exist rising grounds on which artillery may be disposed to protect 

 them. Rivers should be ascended to a considerable distance if possible, 

 in order to ascertain their depths and the nature of the vessels 

 employed on them by the people of the country. On the other hand, 

 if it were required to examine the coast preparatory to putting it in a 

 state of defence, it would be necessary to find out what points of land 

 are convenient for the situations of forts or batteries by which the 

 enemy may be prevented from landing, and where beacons may be 

 established for the purpose of giving timely alarm. If there are 

 islands on the coast, it would be proper to include them in the survey, 

 since they might be fortified and made to serve as advanced works ; 

 and all places should be indicated which are capable of being converted 

 into military posts to prevent the enemy from penetrating into the 

 interior of the country. 



RECORD, a memorial in rolls of parchment of the proceedings aud 

 acts of a court of law, upon whose proceedings error will lie. An act 

 of a party which is put on record cannot be varied even in the same 

 term, but a judicial act of the court may be altered during the same 

 term. If a record is lost, the court may order a new entry to be made 

 at any time. In order to prove a record the existence of which has 

 not been denied on the pleadings, an examined copy is sufficient. But 

 if the existence is denied on the pleadings, it can only be proved upon 

 inspection by the court of the record itself ; and that is conclusive not 

 only as to the existence of the record, but as to all matters stated in 

 it. For the record of a court of competent jurisdiction is legally con- 

 sidered as the indisputable proof of all those proceedings having taken 

 place which the record sets forth ; and no averment to the contrary in 

 pleading can be made. A record found in the proper oftice is legally 

 assumed to have been always in the same plight in which it is found. 

 The effect of a reversal of a judgment in error is to annul the previous 

 record from the commencement. (' Co. Litt.,' 117 b., 260 a. ; Com. 

 ' Dig.,' tit. ' Record.') As to what constitutes a Court of Record, see 

 COURTS, and RECORDER. 



RECORDER (Becordator), a judicial officer, described by Cowell as 

 " he whom the mayor or other magistrate of any city or town corpo- 

 rate having jurisdiction, or a court of record, within their precincts by 

 the king's grant, doth associate unto him for his better direction in 

 matters of justice and proceedings according to law." The Norman 

 term, recofdeur, appears to have originally been applied to every person 

 who was present at a judicial proceeding, and to whose remembrance, 

 or record, of what had taken place the law gave credit in respect of 

 his personal or official weight and dignity. Of this we perceive a trace 

 in the ordinary writ of Accedas ad Curiam, by which the sheriff is 

 commanded to go to some inferior court (which, not being the king's 

 court, is not a court of record), taking with him four knights, and 

 there to record the plaint, which is in that court; the remembrance of 

 the four knightly recordeurs of what they saw existing in the inferior 

 court, in obedience to the king's writ, being treated as equivalent to 

 their actual presence at the proceeding to be recorded. So if the 



