Murphy, Timothy

MURPHY, TIMOTHY. (1751–1818). War hero. Pennsylvania. A legendary Continental rifleman, perhaps the most famous marksman of the Revolution, Murphy was born near the Delaware Water Gap in 1751. As a young man he settled in the Wyoming Valley of Pennsylvania. On 29 June 1775, he and his brother John were mustered into Captain John Lowdon's Northumberland County militia company.

Murphy served in the Boston siege, at Long Island, and in the New Jersey campaign. In the summer of 1777 he was one of 250 picked riflemen sent north under Morgan to oppose Burgoyne. Murphy is generally credited with shooting Sir Francis Clerke and General Simon Fraser in the Second Battle of Saratoga on 7 October 1777, although no contemporary account validates this claim. Many unverifiable legends circulate around Murphy, such as his ability to hit a target at three hundred yards and the claim that he used a double-barreled rifle that is not known to have existed during the Revolution.

Murphy was at Valley Forge. He did not take part in the Battle of Monmouth but the next day, on 29 June 1778, he, his constant companion David Elerson, and two other riflemen captured the elaborate coach of a British general. Moving north with three companies of Morgan's Riflemen to the Mohawk Valley, Murphy tracked down and killed the notorious Christopher Service. He took part in the action at Unadilla in October 1778 in the pursuit of the raiders who had sacked Cherry Valley and also participated in Sullivan's expedition. When his enlistment with Morgan's Riflemen expired in late 1779, Murphy enrolled in Captain Jacob Hager's company of Peter Vrooman's Albany County militia (Fifteenth Regiment). Scouting with militia captain Alexander Harper in the Delaware County forest during the spring of 1780, he was captured by Indians and taken toward Oquago. During the night he and another captive freed each other's bonds and methodically knifed ten sleeping Indians before making their escape.

During the action at Schoharie Valley on 15-19 October 1780, Murphy famously fired on British officers attempting to surrender. Early in 1781 he reenlisted in the Continental army and served in the Pennsylvania Line under General Anthony Wayne and was present at Yorktown. After the war he returned to the Wyoming Valley and became active in local politics. He died in 1818.

SEE ALSO Clerke, Sir Francis Carr; Fraser, Simon (1729–1777); Saratoga, Second Battle of; Schoharie Valley, New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

O'Brien, Michael Joseph. Timothy Murphy, Hero of the American Revolution. New York: Eire Publishing, 1941.

                        revised by Michael Bellesiles