Timothy Murphy

American soldier, born in Pike Co, Pennsylvania, USA. A legendary Continental army sharpshooter, he enlisted (Jun 1775) and fought at Boston and in the New Jersey campaign, served with General Daniel Morgan in the campaign against John Burgoyne (1777), and saw action at Yorktown (1781). His inability to read and write did not bar him from postwar successes in local politics.

At the Battle of Bemis Heights (Second Battle of Saratoga), 7 October 1777, Murphy is reputed to have shot and killed Sir Francis Clerke and General Simon Fraser.

Murphy's life is the subject of John Brick's 1953 novel, The Rifleman.

Little is known of Timothy Murphy's early life.

On 29 June 1775, Murphy and his brother John enlisted in Captain John Lowdon's Company of Northumberland County Riflemen, and subsequently served in the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Long Island, and skirmishing in Westchester. An expert marksman (able to hit a seven inch target at 250 yards), Murphy qualified for Morgan's Rifle Corps, and was transferred to that elite organization in July 1777, shortly after its inception. In August of the same year, Murphy was one of 500 hand-picked riflemen sent north to reinforce the Continental forces opposing General Sir John Burgoyne's invasion of Northern New York.

It was at the Battle of Bemis Heights (Second Battle of Saratoga), 7 October 1777, that Murphy is reputed to have fired the shots that killed Sir Francis Clerke and General Simon Fraser, throwing the British command of the battle into disarray.

Returning to the main army, Murphy suffered through Valley Forge and was involved in harassing the British withdrawal from Philadelphia before General Washington again ordered the northern dispatch of three companies of riflemen in July 1778, in response to attacks on the New York frontier. Murphy and his fellow riflemen garrisoned the Schoharie Valley forts and conducted long range patrols of Indian lands to the south and west. Among with several other riflemen, Murphy enlisted in Captain Jacob Hager's Company of Colonel Peter Vrooman's 15th Regiment of the Albany County Militia. Murphy resumed his patrolling through what are now Schoharie, Otsego, Delaware, and Greene Counties, confirming his reputation as “The terror of the Tories and Indians', as one historian has put it.

It was during this period the Murphy also became the terror of one of the more prosperous Dutch farmers of the valley, Johannes Feeck. However, when the farmer and his wife realized that the real reason was a growing attraction between the Irishman and their daughter Margaret (Peggy), Murphy was told not to return. The father became reconciled to the marriage when Murphy let it be known he would otherwise take his new bride to Pennsylvania.

And shortly thereafter, when the British raided the Schoharie Valley, and Murphy ‘s fame among his neighbors reached its zenith at the defense of the Middle Fort (see sidebar), Peggy was with him, molding bullets, loading muskets, and swearing to take up a spear when the ammunition ran out.

Early in 1781, Murphy reenlisted in the Pennsylvania Line under General Wayne and was present for the final Battle of Yorktown.

By his first wife, Murphy had five sons and four daughters.

Murphy was buried there next to his first wife. In 1913, the Ancient Order of Hibernians placed a marker commemorating Murphy at the Saratoga Battlefield, and the state put up its own marker there in 1929. In dedicating that monument, Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt said:

"This country has been made by Timothy Murphys, the men in the ranks.