Michael Patrick Murphy

He and his brother Patrick left Ireland, and sailed from Liverpool, England in October 1852, arriving in New York in December. By 1861 he was a husband and father of 5 children, working as a bell hanger (installing systems of bells in "high-end homes"). He enlisted in New York City on 16 August 1861 as 5th Sergeant, Company D, 61st New York Infantry. He gave his age as 32, and was 5'9" tall with dark hair and blue eyes. He was 3rd Sergeant by Antietam.

He later wrote that he and his regiment "had it hot for some time" at Antietam.

He complained of chest pains and was discharged for disability 1 November 1862 at Bolivar Heights, VA. As a result, in the 1870's he was given a lifelong pension of $12 a month.

His wife had died in 1864. He worked as a wheelwright and a carriage maker, and later a real estate broker dealing in houses and land in Westchester County, NY. He was elected First Justice of the Peace of Westchester County in the 1890's.

Service data from the New York Adjutant General1. Thanks to GGGrandson Rick Billies for many of the details about the Sergeant and his presence at Antietam, and for posting a postwar photograph of Murphy.

c. 1829; Anticrollia, County Carlow, IRELAND

04/30/1902; burial in Old Saint Raymond's Cemetery, The Bronx, NY