John Murray (1790-1882), The War of 1812

Each Memorial Day, I try and remember one ancestor who fought for our nation.  Over time, I have done stories from the American Revolution, from the Civil War, from World War I, and from World War II.

This year - The War of 1812.  

Third great-grandfather John Murray's father emigrated to America from Edinburgh, Scotland in the second half of the 18th century.  John was born in North Carolina.  When he was born is a little uncertain.  In various Census responses, pension applications, land grant applications and other such official documents his claimed birthdate ranged from 1783 to 1790.  Usually, though, with the same specific date, May 28th.  

It is unclear why there was such a cavalier approach to the year.  

He died in Coaling, Alabama, near Tuscaloosa in 1882.  Depending on the birthdate you choose, he was between 92 and 99.  Not bad for a frontiersman.  

There was a lot of life in John.  There are three documented marriages with three or more children in each marriage.  Family lore is that he was married five times.  

His last marriage occurred when he was 68 years old (his wife was 29.)  His last son was born when he was 78.  

The War of 1812 is sort of obscured in our history but consequential in many ways (especially the Battle of New Orleans).  The USA was on the back foot for much of the war given the size of the military at Britain's command and given the might of the British Navy.  American soldiers generally moved slowly by foot on land or by river whereas Britain could land an Army anywhere along 3,000 miles of coastline.  

John's family had moved from North Carolina to the new colony of Georgia by 1800.  First in Oglethorpe county, then Wilkinson county.  In 1807, when he was between 17 and 24, he married Elizabeth Watson (1790-1825). 

The War of 1812 had two aspects in the South.  There was obviously the potential invasion by England (as occurred in Washington, D.C., Savannah, and New Orleans) and there was also war on the frontier between settlers and the Native American tribes such as the Red Stick Creeks.  The war in the South occurred primarily between late 1813 and early 1815.

From late 1813 onwards enlistments were sought and local militia raised and frequently called out either to counter Indian moves on the interior borders or to march to the coast in anticipation of British landings there.  

It is possible (the records are unclear) that John Murray may have volunteered and served for a month or so on a campaign in late 1813.  

It is known that Murray did enlist on October 12, 1814 and served for six months.  He volunteered in Captain Burwell Pope’s Company.   Captain Pope’s company was formed in Lexington, Oglethorpe County, Georgia and was discharged in Savannah.  

Murray served as a private under Col. Jett Thomas, 2 Regiment Georgia Militia.  Company Muster Rolls indicate John served at Camp Jackson in Savannah, Georgia. Company Pay Roll - indicated commencement of service Oct. 12, 1814 and expiration of service March 17, 1815.  Total amount of pay 41 dollars and 29 cents.    He left home that October a wife and three young sons.  

The New Georgia Encyclopedia gives context for his service.  

Georgia had been subdued, for the most part, by the British in the American Revolution. Its coastal cities had been occupied, and in 1812 it seemed possible that a powerful British force could do so again. Little protection was forthcoming from the federal government because of its serious deficiency in ships and sailors. British warships hovered off Georgia’s coast, snapping up coastal trading craft and disrupting the livelihood of Georgians. Georgia’s citizens and leaders clamored for help. 

[snip]

The failure of the Sunbury expedition left the Georgia coast open for British attack. To forestall this, the state set about building batteries at key locations, including the old Fort Morris at Sunbury (rebuilt and renamed Fort Defiance), the battery at Point Peter in St. Marys, and many other strong points on the coast. During the next year and a half no serious British threat emerged to endanger the Georgia coast, due in part to British efforts against Napoleon. In 1814, however, all that changed. Napoleon’s defeat in Europe freed thousands of hardened British regulars to move across the Atlantic and threaten the United States.

On December 24, 1814, American and British representatives meeting at Ghent, Belgium, signed a preliminary treaty that would end the War of 1812, but the combatants, far from Europe, knew nothing of it. Along Georgia’s coast American forces fared poorly. On January 10, 1815, British forces under the command of Admiral Sir George Cockburn landed on Cumberland Island in an effort to tie up American forces and keep them from joining other American forces to help defend New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Gulf Coast. But bad weather and lack of materials and ships delayed Cockburn until it was too late to produce any effect on the outcome of the battle for New Orleans. The occupation of Cumberland Island, however, left the British with a strong base of operations that they consolidated on January 13 by effecting a landing near the American battery at Point Peter on the mainland. There they encountered an ambush by a small force of Americans. The British quickly drove off the attacks and occupied the town of St. Marys.

Cockburn, by the end of January 1815, had solidified his base of operations and was under orders to await the arrival of Major Edward Nicolls, leading a joint force of British soldiers, Native American allies, and freed Blacks. Suitably reinforced, Cockburn was then to attack along the southern coast, liberating enslaved inhabitants and fomenting rebellion, thus holding down large numbers of American troops from other theaters of the war. Nicolls’s force, which was supposed to strike into Georgia from the Gulf Coast, never materialized, although it did succeed in disrupting communications between Georgia and Mobile. The threat of Nicolls’s impending arrival also forced the Americans to hold back in Georgia many reserves that could have been sent to aid in American defenses at Mobile and New Orleans. While Nicolls’s force hampered efforts on the Gulf Coast, Cockburn planned to move north and strike at Savannah. General John Floyd stationed some 2,000 men near Savannah and awaited the British thrust, but Cockburn’s operation was halted by news that the Treaty of Ghent had been signed. The British finally evacuated St. Marys after the ratification of the treaty on February 17, 1815.

As with most soldiers in most wars, John Murray's service was about moving to where the risk was anticipated to be.  He joined in Oglethorpe County, northwest of Augusta and moved with his regiment to Camp Jackson in Fort James Jackson on the Savannah River in defense of that city.  

In one of his pension applications, Murray mentions:

I served six months of my time at Savannah Ga. All except about two weeks when we were ordered out to keep the British from landing. 

That presumably was a response to Cockburn's landing in January by Cumberland Island, 130 miles south of Savannah.

The battles are what we remember but for every soldier in battle there are dozens who marched.  Marched and waited.  Marched and camped.  Marched and rallied to alarms.  That was John Murray's war.  Those who blocked the British from Savannah, who defended the frontier from attack - they all made the pitched battles that decided the war possible.

After the war, Murray returned to Oglethorpe.  His first wife died in 1825 and he married my third great-grandmother, Elizabeth Caldwell (1807-1855).  

He received land bounties for his service.  He eventually moved to the Tuscaloosa area in Alabama.  He seems to have been a businessman in addition to a successful farmer, with records of land purchases and sales wherever he settled.  

Elizabeth Caldwell passed away and in 1858, John Murray married Jane Pierson Howell (1829-1914.)  

Notably, his marriages lasted eighteen years, thirty years, and twenty-seven years.  That is a whole lot of lifetime.  

When he died, he left behind at least 10 children who had survived into adulthood.

We have glimpses of him later in life.

June 14, 1876--Tuscaloosa Times-- Vance’s Station-- Mr. John Murry celebrated his 93rd birthday on Sunday the 28th of May, by giving his children and friends a superb dinner. He lives near this place and is quite sprightly and lively. 

Vance Station is the site of the Mercedes Benz plant now.

My great-grandmother, Elizabeth Docia Ann Murry (1874-1962) was born in Tuscaloosa and would have known her grandfather John Murray who passed in 1882.  I was born in 1959 and overlapped with my great-grandmother who overlapped with her grandfather who fought in the War of 1812.  Remarkable.

A long lived family, sprightly and lively indeed.