Peter Murphy

Private Peter Murphy, USMC enlisted in the Marine Corps in Brooklyn, New York on 10 September 1862 and from tracing his enlistment through the muster rolls, he remained at the Marine Barracks, Brooklyn Navy Yard until he was attached to the Marine guard of the USS Brooklyn on 14 April 1864 under the command of Captain George Porter Houston, USMC. ^[1]

Murphy was aboard the Brooklyn during the 5 August 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay, in which action he was killed.^[2] Surgeon George Maulsby in his casualty report misidentifies Murphy as Michael Murphy, presumably transposing Murphy's name from that of Michael Mcher whose name is directly below his on the Brooklyn's Marine muster roll.

Peter Murphy had been in the Corps for nearly one year and eleven months.

Interment

Section 2, Grave 311, Mobile National Cemetery

Peter Murphy and the rest of the Brooklyn KIAs from the Battle of Mobile Bay were originally buried at Fort Powell. The graves were later removed by the Army Quartermaster Department to Mobile National Cemetery. The internment card for Murphy's grave mistakenly lists him as a seaman and that he was not found on the Brooklyn muster rolls. The Army is evidently not aware that Marine and Sailors are on separate muster rolls for Civil War-era commands despite both falling under the Department of the Navy. The Quartermaster Department's 1870 publication "Roll of Honor: Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union vol. 8" however correctly identifies Murphy as a Marine.

Dependents

Awards and Memorials

References

^[1] United States Muster Rolls of the Marine Corps, 1798-1937. National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. ^[2] "Report of Casualties on the USS Brooklyn" NARA "Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy From Commanding Officers of Squadrons, 1841-1886".

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