General Sir John Murray, 8th Baronet, GCH (c. 1768 – 15 October 1827[1]) was a British Army officer who led a brigade under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, in the Peninsular War.
There, "his alternations of torpor and feverish activity had greatly embarrassed the young Arthur Wellesley with whom he was supposed to be cooperating.
After giving Murray two additional cavalry squadrons, Wellington entrusted him with the task of crossing the Douro River and cutting off the escape route of Marshal Nicolas Soult's French corps.
Though Suchet's 13,200 were considerably outnumbered and the battle was largely won by the steadiness of the British and Spanish infantry, Castalla was undoubtedly Murray's finest hour.
By this manoeuvre, Wellington intended to distract Suchet from his summer offensive (this ended in victory in the Battle of Vitoria).
Rear-Admiral Benjamin Hallowell Carew put Murray's 16,000 men ashore six miles south of Tarragona on 2 June.
Joined by Spanish Major-General Francisco Copons with 7,000 men, the Allies quickly invested the 1,600-man Franco-Italian garrison of Brigadier-General Bertoletti.
Mathieu bumped into Copons's pickets, found that he was facing a combined force of 23,000 men and quickly backpedalled.
Issuing a stream of orders that confused everyone and enraged Hallowell, Murray finally got his entire force aboard ship after spiking and abandoning the eighteen heavy siege cannon.
The appearance of these fresh troops caused Murray to give up his plans again, and his thwarted expedition returned to Alicante.