Timothy Murphy | |
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 A monument to Murphy | |
| Born | c. 1751 |
| Died | c. 1818 (aged 66-67) |
| Occupation | Soldier |
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| Children | 13 |
Timothy Murphy (c. 1751 – c. 1818) was an American soldier who fought during the Revolutionary War. In the Saratoga campaign, Murphy is reputed to have shot and killed British Army officers Sir Francis Clerke and Simon Fraser. Murphy's life is the subject of a 1953 novel titled The Rifleman.
Relatively few details of Murphy's early life are known. He was born in the year 1751 near the Delaware Water Gap. His parents were Presbyterians from County Donegal, Ireland who moved to Shamokin Flats (now Sunbury, Pennsylvania) in 1759, when Murphy was eight years old. A few years later, Murphy became an apprentice to a Mr Van Campen and moved with the van Campen family to the Wyoming Valley, which was then the frontier. [1]
On June 29, 1775, shortly after the start of the American Revolutionary War, Timothy Murphy and his brother John enlisted in the Northumberland County Riflemen, specifically Captain John Lowdon's Company. Their unit saw action in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and "skirmishing in Westchester". [1] After this, Murphy was promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Continental Army's 12th Pennsylvania Regiment and fought at the battles of Trenton and Princeton. Murphy was an "expert marksman", defined as being "able to hit a seven-inch target at 250 yards". [1] In July 1777, this skill led to Murphy joining Daniel Morgan's newly formed Morgan's Riflemen.
Later that year, he was selected as one of 500 handpicked riflemen to go with General Daniel Morgan to Upstate New York to help stop General John Burgoyne and the British Army. As the battles around Saratoga raged, the British, having been pushed back, were being rallied by Brigadier-General Simon Fraser. Benedict Arnold rode up to General Morgan, pointed at Fraser and told Morgan the man was worth a regiment. Morgan called on Murphy and said, "That gallant officer is General Fraser. I admire him, but it is necessary that he should die, do your duty." Murphy scaled a nearby tree, took careful aim at the extreme distance of 300 yards, and fired three times. The first shot was a close miss, the second grazed the general's horse, and with the third, Fraser tumbled from his horse, shot through the stomach. General Fraser died that night. British senior officer Sir Francis Clerke, General Burgoyne's chief aide-de-camp, galloped onto the field with a message. Murphy's third shot killed him instantly. Murphy also fought at the battle of the Middle Fort in 1780. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Murphy's 1839 biography Life and Adventures of Timothy Murphy by Mr. Sigsby, reveals that Murphy "Sometimes habited in the dress of the Indian, with his face painted, he would pass among them, making important discoveries as to their strength and designs without detection." Sigsby also relates some of Murphy's infamous brutality against First Nations people: "The Indian was very large and powerful and Murphy being exceedingly angry, skinned his legs and drew it over his long stockings. ... But the skin of the Indian having shrunk, began to gall his legs, whereupon he took his hunting knife and ripped them off."
Murphy's first wife, Peggy (née Margaret Feeck), was the daughter of Johannes Feeck, a prosperous Dutch farmer in the valley. Timothy and Margaret Murphy had five sons and four daughters. Several years after the 1807 death of his first wife, Murphy married Mary Robertson, and with her relocated to Charlotteville, New York, and thereby she had four more sons. [1]
The bronze bas-relief plaque on Murphy's grave at Upper Middleburgh Cemetery, Middleburgh, New York was designed by sculptor Evelyn Beatrice Longman (1874–1954). [5]
The Battle of Bennington was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, part of the Saratoga campaign, that took place on August 16, 1777, on a farm in Walloomsac, New York, about 10 miles (16 km) from its namesake, Bennington, Vermont. A rebel force of 2,000 men, primarily New Hampshire and Massachusetts militiamen, led by General John Stark, and reinforced by Vermont militiamen led by Colonel Seth Warner and members of the Green Mountain Boys, decisively defeated a detachment of General John Burgoyne's army led by Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum, and supported by additional men under Lieutenant Colonel Heinrich von Breymann.
The Battles of Saratoga marked the climax of the Saratoga campaign, giving a decisive victory to the Americans over the British in the American Revolutionary War. British General John Burgoyne led an invasion army of 7,200–8,000 men southward from Canada in the Champlain Valley, hoping to meet a similar British force marching northward from New York City and another British force marching eastward from Lake Ontario; the goal was to take Albany, New York. The southern and western forces never arrived, and Burgoyne was surrounded by American forces in upstate New York 15 miles (24 km) short of his goal. He fought two battles which took place 18 days apart on the same ground 9 miles (14 km) south of Saratoga, New York. He gained a victory in the first battle despite being outnumbered, but lost the second battle after the Americans returned with an even larger force.
General John Burgoyne was a British general, dramatist and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1792. He first saw action during the Seven Years' War when he participated in several battles, most notably during the Portugal Campaign of 1762.
Daniel Morgan was an American pioneer, soldier, and politician from Virginia. One of the most respected battlefield tacticians of the American Revolutionary War of 1775–1783, he later commanded troops during the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791–1794.
General James Inglis Hamilton was a Scottish soldier. He enlisted in the British Army in 1755 and commanded several regiments. He was the only colonel of the 113th Regiment of Foot. During the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), Hamilton fought in the Siege of Fort St Philip, the Raid on St Malo, and the Capture of Belle Île.
The Saratoga campaign in 1777 was an attempt by the British high command for North America to gain military control of the strategically important Hudson River valley during the American Revolutionary War. It ended in the surrender of the British army, which historian Edmund Morgan argues, "was a great turning point of the war, because it won for Americans the foreign assistance which was the last element needed for victory."
Simon Fraser was a British general during the American War of Independence. He was killed in the Battle of Bemis Heights during the Saratoga Campaign. The shot that killed Fraser is often attributed to Timothy Murphy, of Daniel Morgan's Rifle Corps, which was assigned to the Left and under the command of Benedict Arnold, who was leading Morgan's men as well as Dearborn, Cilley, Poor, and the rest of the American left wing, which was attempting to push back the reconnaissance in force led by Simon Fraser on the Barber Wheatfield.
Heinrich von Breymann was a German lieutenant colonel from the Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel who fought in the American Revolutionary War. He was commander of the Breymann Grenadiers, a Brunswick battalion hired into British service, and served under the command of John Burgoyne. During the Battles of Saratoga, Breymann's unit was driven behind a redoubt, where he grew frustrated at the poor performance of his men, attacking four with his saber before he was killed by one of his own men.
The 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga occurred between the 2nd and 6 July 1777 at Fort Ticonderoga, near the southern end of Lake Champlain in the state of New York. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne's 8,000-man army occupied high ground above the fort, and nearly surrounded the defenses. These movements precipitated the occupying Continental Army, an under-strength force of 3,000 under the command of General Arthur St. Clair, to withdraw from Ticonderoga and the surrounding defenses. Some gunfire was exchanged, and there were some casualties, but there was no formal siege and no pitched battle. Burgoyne's army occupied Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, the extensive fortifications on the Vermont side of the lake, without opposition on 6 July. Advance units pursued the retreating Americans.
Bennet C. Riley was the seventh and last military governor of California. Riley ordered the election of representatives to a state constitutional convention, and handed over all civil authority to a Governor and elected delegates at the end of 1849; the following year, California joined the U.S. as a state. He participated in the War of 1812 on Lake Ontario. He also served in the United States Army during the Seminole War in Florida, and Mexican–American War.
The Battle of Hubbardton was an engagement in the Saratoga campaign of the American Revolutionary War fought in the village of Hubbardton, Vermont. Vermont was then a disputed territory sometimes called the New Hampshire Grants, claimed by New York, New Hampshire, and the newly organized, not yet recognized, but de facto independent government of Vermont. On the morning of July 7, 1777, British forces, under General Simon Fraser, caught up with the American rear guard of the forces retreating after the withdrawal from Fort Ticonderoga. It was the only battle in Vermont during the revolution.
Gabriel Long was an American military officer and frontiersman who served with distinction in many early conflicts during the colonial and post-colonial eras, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. He was known as an expert rifleman and an able commander who fought closely beside George Washington in several pivotal battles.
Fultonham is a hamlet in Fulton, Schoharie County, New York, United States. Fultonham is located within the historic Schoharie Valley.
Events from the year 1777 in the United States.
The Surrender of General Burgoyne is an oil painting by the American artist John Trumbull. The painting was completed in 1821 and hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.
Sir William Henry Clerke, 8th Baronet was an English clergyman, rector of Bury, Lancashire.
One of New York State's 62 counties, Schoharie County was created with its own borders in 1795. The modern-day area of Schoharie County once fell under the boundaries of the expansive Albany County. Numerous times after the 1683 creation of Albany County, partitions of its area were divided up reassigning parts of the land under new dominions. Partitions that were designated in a 1795 change rendered a parcel to be known as Schoharie County from portions of Albany County's territory.
Morgan's Riflemen or Morgan's Rifles, previously Morgan's Sharpshooters, and the one named Provisional Rifle Corps, were an elite light infantry unit commanded by General Daniel Morgan in the American Revolutionary War, which served a vital role executing his tasks because it was equipped with what was then the cutting-edge rifle instead of muskets, allowing for a rifleman to have an effective range of double that of the average infantryman.
Sir Francis Carr Clerke, 7th Baronet was a British Army officer who was killed at the Battles of Saratoga.
The Saratoga Battle Monument is a 155-foot (47 m) granite obelisk located in the village of Victory, Saratoga County, New York. The monument commemorates what is called the "Turning Point" of the American Revolution—the surrender of British forces led by General John Burgoyne to the Americans under General Horatio Gates.
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