J. F. W. Des Barres' 'Great Folly'
Image 5. LOC L690. G3804.N4S3 1776 .M4 Manuscript map of British and American troop positions in the New York City region at the time of the Battle of Long Island (Aug.-Sept. 1776)
Acknowledgements
I should like to acknowledge a number of people who have assisted and supported me in the writing of this paper. Firstly, there is Frank Licameli (Lt. Colonel, ret.) who many years ago sought me out after a short interview I gave, about one of the plans featured in this paper, which was published in New York’s DNA News. Frank’s expertise and knowledge of Revolutionary War New York has been a veritable blessing to an Englishman such as I. Further, I would like to acknowledge all of the helpful and knowledgeable archive staff I have worked with over the years, both in the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, and the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division. Thanks also go to Mary Sponberg Pedley of UMCL for her timely, helpful and encouraging remarks along with my sister Muriel Adamson who has been a constant source of expertise, especially in matters relating to Intellectual Property. Last but not least a very special ‘thank you’ goes to my wonderful partner Cindy Wrenn for her astute insights and, not least, for living with me, my maps, books, computer and interminable video making.
Copyright and Permissions
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photography, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for purposes of research and education.
Please cite as follows: Adamson, A.J.W. Des Barres’ Great Folly. An examination of Des Barres’ first and last major foray into the realm of political mapping and the little known Plans he created to that end. Heritage Charts. 2023. www.heritagecharts.com
Glossary of Terms
Each of the following terms may be found in this paper. Each have varying (specific) definitions and possibly even meanings, in the context of the modern world. What is important is to acknowledge that the definitions which appear below are related to the works at the center of this investigation, which were created over 250 years ago. For the purposes of this paper they are defined as follows:
Cartography
The science and art of making maps.
Hydrography (Hydrographical)
Features of an underwater area, the ‘sounding’ or measuring for depth, tides, shoals, rocks and other underwater obstacles.
Topographic (topographical)
A topographic survey or map which relates or shows the natural physical features of an area of land, for example; hills, valleys, and rivers. This may be extended to include roads, settlements and permanent structures such as houses, bridges and fortifications.
Topological
Where information and detail has been simplified so that only vital information remains and unnecessary detail has been removed.
Map
A map is a symbolic representation of selected characteristics of a place, usually drawn on a flat surface. A map is generally drawn to a large scale and may not be geographically accurate. It does not need to be drawn to scale.
Plan
A plan depicts detail of the working of a design or scheme to achieve a specific goal and is often two dimensional and tends to be on a large scale. In the instance of a military plan it details the position of military units and other significant or specific topological features. A plan needs to be accurate.
Survey
A survey is an accurate depiction of a site (property, area of land, defined boundary) which is scaled and detailed to show all the natural and man-made features.
Manuscript
A work which has not been officially printed, reproduced or published for public consumption. Manuscripts are always unpublished works. The Latin 'manuscriptus' means written by hand, but it may today include something which has been typed, so long as it refers to an author's originally produced work sent to a publisher.
Engraved Plate
A printing plate made of copper which was hammered flat, engraved or scratched to accommodate ink upon which paper was pressed to create a print.
Finished Copy Drawing
The completed drawing, taken from the original survey surveys. Drawn to scale, ready to be copied, enlarged or reduced
in scale for purposes of printing, publishing or distribution.
Scale
The relationship (or ratio) between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground.
Draft
A rough drawing or sketch
About the Plans
The three plans in question are currently in the care of two institutions: The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) and the Library of Congress Map and Geography Division (LOC). They currently carry the shelf identifiers: A9459 press 31c, ‘L690 press 83’ and G3804.N4S3 1776 .M4. For simplicity sake, they will be referred to herein by an abbreviation of their original shelf numbers with an identifying prefix: UKHO A9459 (Image 1), UKHO L690 (Image 4) and LOC L690 (Image 5).
UKHO A9459 (Image 1) is made up of two distinct parts; It has at it’s center a finished-copy drawing of lower Manhattan which has been stuck on to the surrounding paper to form the center piece of a larger draft plan. This finished-copy drawing at its heart is in fact an irrelevance to the overall purpose of the draft plan in it's entirety and is therefore included here as part of the ‘draft plan’. The surrounding sheet is drawn by hand in pencil and ink and completed with water-colour to emphasise relief.
Spelling
Where there is a choice, American spelling has been used throughout, except where a word has been quoted directly from a title or the text included on the original document in question.
Image 1. UKHO A9459. New York, East River, part of Hudson River and adjacent country
Image 4. UKHO L690 press 83. New York Bay and Harbour and vicinity shewing the disposition of the forces &c.
When placed on top of one another, digitally, it is clear to see that the original draft of the plan perfectly matches the middle section of the two subsequent L690 plans (Image 6).
Of further note is that the Lower Manhattan center-piece is unquestionaly related to Bernard Ratzer’s finished copy drawing for the 1770 Faden and Jeffreys production of the Plan of the City of New York [See Appendix 2]. It has been glued onto the second, ‘surrounding’, sheet upon which Des Barres has sketched the environs of New York; Long Island, West Chester County and New Jersey, as fitted his purpose to depict military disposition therein.
Separation
According to William Stanley, Chief Historian (emeritus) NOAA, in 1956 one of the two L690 plans was presented to then Rear Admiral Henry Arnold Karo of the former US Coast and Geodetic Survey Corps after a visit to the then UK Hydrographic Office in Cricklewood [6] it was housed in the NOAA (C&GS) [7] Library until the 1970s when it was then displayed at the Washington Science Centre in Rockville, Maryland. It was gifted to its present location in the Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division in the mid 1990s [Appendix 3].
It should also be noted, that in a verbal account [8] given by Mr Stanley, when the plan was first gifted to Admiral Karo and NOAA it was already framed and shipped complete with frame. This would suggest that at some point in it’s history it had also been displayed in England for a number of years prior to it being gifted abroad. If indeed this was the case then we may assume that it had graced the wall of an Admiralty or Government office as it had been returned at some point to the Admiralty Hydrographic Department for storage. This notion is further supported by the note in the UKHO index Book ‘A’ which states that there are two copies with one ‘mounted’ at the time of listing, which was almost certainly about 1826 [9] when Book A first came into use. This would therefore indicate that it had been displayed prior to the Book A entry. Of further note is that the shelf mark written on the bottom right of the two L690 editions as well as the draft A9459 is in the same hand as entries in a later catalogue ledger in the UKHO archive dating from 1915-16 when a further attempt was made to catalogue material more accurately.
Image 10. LOC L690 dimensions & construction
The LOC edition top and bottom boarder sections have been repaired and strengthened on the verso but still suffer from a crack along the seam, presumably from continual rolling-up of the map over time (Image 14).
Whilst the LOC L690 edition is in good condition, much better than the UKHO edition, it does shows signs of discoloration due to sunlight damage over the years; That it was previously mounted or framed, hung and displayed for 20-years might well account for the discoloration, with the bottom right section showing the area where it is likely that an information sheet [11] was either framed along with the plan itself or attached to the glass in the frame whilst at the Washington Science Center, Rockville, Maryland. This would explain the slightly darker patch in the bottom right of the plan (see images 15 and 16 below). A copy of the information sheets which accompanied the LOC L690 when it was passed to the Library of Congress Geography and Map Division may be viewed in [Appendix 4]. It is supposed that the information sheets were part of an exhibition at some point.
Image 21. UKHO L690 Section showing one of the fields of action at Brooklyn, August 27th 1776.
Image 22. LOC L690. Section showing main field of action at Brooklyn,
August 27th 1776.
The Making of the Plans
Intentions
In the absence of Des Barres’ complete draft plan (see Image 2 above) we may assume that the land area covered on the draft was the same as that of the two L690’ plans. This, of course, would reflect the expectation back in London that the campaign would not progress beyond the immediate environs of Long Island and New York Island, once it was clear that New York would be the next theatre of action, after the loss of Boston in March 1776. Indeed, there are clear signs that when Des Barres drew the draft plan he drew all the roads and topographic detail first, adding whatever military disposition later over the top of the outline as information came to him through August to late-December 1776 (Image 26 below).
Image 31. Center section LOC L690
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Image 32. Center section Blaskowitz HQ Map
