Project Appleseed

Your Appleseed State Board => Maine => Topic started by: The Old Guide on October 07, 2016, 12:15:44 PM

Title: Timothy Murphy, Today in 1777
Post by: The Old Guide on October 07, 2016, 12:15:44 PM
On this day in 1777 at the Battle of Saratoga, Timothy Murphy shot General Simon Fraser off his horse with a rifle from 300 yards away. Another British Senior officer, Sir Frances Clarke, General Burgoyne's chief Aide-de-Camp, galloped onto the field with an important message. Murphy's second shot dropped him. He was dead before he hit the ground! General Fraser died the following day.

These two unerring shots did more than anything else to shatter the morale of the British and turned the tide of the most important battle of the Revolution. After General Fraser fell, a panic spread among the British lines. They went back up into Canada.

Daniel Morgan had the only rifle company on our side. The British had no rifle companies. Riflemen earned us our freedom. Daniel Morgan sent a letter to King George: "Before you send any more officers to America, tell them to put their affairs in order because I have not a man who cannot put a rifle ball through the head of a British officer at 250 yards."

British officers began to volunteer for posting to India instead of America. India had no Riflemen.
Title: Re: Timothy Murphy, Today in 1777
Post by: Rasmus on October 07, 2016, 01:46:38 PM
Thank you for this. Great line I didn't know he sent a letter to King George.  Glad to learn something new today.
Title: Re: Timothy Murphy, Today in 1777
Post by: TaosGlock on October 07, 2016, 04:24:33 PM
That is an indeed a good story we tell at each Appleseed. It was after this event that the French decided to join the cause.
The quote however is very similar to the Tory printers, the Bradford Brothers, and has been referenced by many sources  as such.
Perhaps Morgan borrowed it.

Two Philadelphia printers, the Bradford brothers, wrote a London publisher a letter which was printed in the London Chronicle of August 17-19, 1775, "This province has raised 1000 riflemen, the worst of whom will put a ball into a man's head at the distance of 150 or 200 yards, therefore advise your officers who shall hereafter come out to America to settle their affairs in England before their departure." (20)

(20) London Chronicle, August 17-19, 1775, p. 174, cited in John G.W. Dillin, The Kentucky Rifle, p. 83.

We often quote this before or after a Redcoat as an historical frame up.


Title: Re: Timothy Murphy, Today in 1777
Post by: DrRichP on October 07, 2016, 05:51:30 PM
Quote from: The Old Guide on October 07, 2016, 12:15:44 PMAfter General Fraser fell, a panic spread among the British lines. They went back up into Canada.

Did they go back to Canada or were they part of Gen. John Burgoyne's surrender convention that involved his men surrendering their weapons, and returning to Europe with a pledge not to return to North America?