Tim Murphy, Rifleman
Page 1
Table of Contents
Books by Roy Chandler
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Author's After Notes
About Roy Chandler
Books by Roy Chandler
By Publication Date
All About a Foot Soldier, 1965
History of Early Perry County Guns and Gunsmiths (With Donald L. Mitchell), 1969
A History of Perry County Railroads, 1970
Alaskan hunter: a book about big game hunting, 1972
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes and Barrel Marks, 1972
Tales of Perry County, 1973
Arrowmaker, 1974
Hunting in Perry County, 1974
Antiques of Perry County, 1976
The Black Rifle, 1976
Homes, Barns and Outbuildings of Perry County, 1978
Shatto, 1979
The Perry County Flavor, 1980
Arms Makers of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1981
The Didactor, 1981
Fort Robinson: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1750-63, 1981
Friend Seeker: A novel of Perry County PA, 1982
Gunsmiths of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1982
Perry County in Pen & Ink, 1983
Shatto's way: A novel of Perry County, Pa, 1984
Chip Shatto: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1863-6, 1984
Pennsylvania Gunmakers (a collection), 1984
Firefighters of Perry County, 1985
The Warrior, A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania 1721-1764, 1985
Perry County Sketchbook (And Katherine R. Chandler), 1986
A 30-foot, $6,000 Cruising Catamaran, 1987
The Gun of Joseph Smith (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1987
The Perry Countian, 1987
Hawk's Feather - An Adventure Story, 1988
Ted's Story, 1988
Alcatraz: The Hard Years 1934-1938 (With Erville F. Chandler), 1989
Cronies, 1989
Song of Blue Moccasin, 1989
Chugger's Hunt, 1990
The Sweet Taste, 1990
Tiff's game: A work of fiction, 1991
Tuck Morgan, Plainsman (Vol. 2) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1991
Death From Afar I (And Norman A. Chandler), 1992
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes All New Volume 2, 1992
Behold the Long Rifle, 1993
Death From Afar II: Marine Corps Sniping (And Norman A. Chandler), 1993
Old Dog, 1993
Tim Murphy, Rifleman: A novel of Perry County, Pa. 1754-1840, 1993
Choose the Right Gun, 1994
Death From Afar Vol. III: The Black Book (And Norman A. Chandler), 1994
The Kentucky Pistol, 1994
Ramsey: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, 1994
Gray's Talent, 1995
Hunting Alaska, 1995
Last Black Book, 1995
Dark shadow (The Red book series), 1996
Death From Afar IV (And Norman A. Chandler, 1996
Morgan's Park (Vol. 3) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1997
White feather: Carlos Hathcock USMC scout sniper (And Norman A. Chandler), 1997
Death From Afar V (And Norman A. Chandler), 1998
Ironhawk: A frontier novel of Perry County Pennsylvania 1759-1765, 1999
Sniper One, 2000
One Shot Brotherhood (And Norman A. Chandler), 2001
Shooter Galloway, 2004
The Hunter's Alaska, 2005
The Boss's Boy, 2007
Pardners, 2009
Hawk's Revenge, 2010
Perry County, Pennsylvania series
History of Early Perry County Guns and Gunsmiths, 1969
A History of Perry County Railroads, 1970
Tales of Perry County, 1973
A History of Hunting in Perry County, 1974
Arrowmaker, 1974
Antiques of Perry County, 1976
The Black Rifle, 1976
Homes, Barns and Outbuildings of Perry County,1978
Shatto, 1979
The Perry County Flavor, 1980
The Didactor, 1981
Fort Robinson: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1750-63, 1981
Friend Seeker: A novel of Perry County PA, 1982
Perry County in Pen &Ink, 1983
Shatto's way: A novel of Perry County, Pa, 1984
Chip Shatto: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, the years 1863-65, 1984
Firefighters of Perry County, 1982
Perry County Sketchbook, 1986
The Warrior, A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, 1995
The Perry Countian, 1987
Hawk's Feather - An Adventure Story, 1988
Ted's Story, 1988
Cronies, 1989
Song of Blue Moccasin, 1989
The Sweet Taste, 1990
Tiff's game: A work of fiction, 1991
Old Dog, 1993
Tim Murphy, Rifleman: A novel of Perry County, Pa, 1754-1840, 1993
Ramsey: A novel of Perry County Pennsylvania, 1994
Last Black Book, 1995
Gun of Joseph Smith series (Juvenile)
Gun of Joseph Smith, The (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1987
Tuck Morgan, Plainsman (Vol. 2) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1991
Morgan's Park (Vol. 3) (With Katherine R. Chandler), 1997
Antique Guns
History of Early Perry County Guns and Gunsmiths (With Donald L. Mitchell), 1969
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes and Barrel Marks, 1972
Arms Makers of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1981
Gunsmiths of Eastern Pennsylvania, 1982
Pennsylvania Gunmakers (a collection), 1984
Kentucky Rifle Patchboxes All New Volume 2, 1992
Behold the Long Rifle, 1993
The Kentucky Pistol, 1994
Hunting
Alaskan hunter: a book about big game hunting, 1972
Choose the Right Gun, 1994
Hunting Alaska, 1995
The Hunter's Alaska, 2005
Sniper Series
Death From Afar I (And Norman A. Chandler), 1992
Death From Afar II: Marine Corps Sniping (And Norman A. Chandler), 1993
Death From Afar Vol. III: The Black Book (And Norman A. Chandler), 1994
Death From Afar IV (And Norman A. Chandler), 1996
White feather : Carlos Hathcock USMC scout sniper (And Norman A. Chandler), 1997
Death From Afar V (And Norman A. Chandler), 1998
Sniper One (Iron Brigade series), 2000
One Shot Brotherhood (And Norman A. Chandler)
Children’s Books
All About a Foot Soldier, 1965
Iron Brigade Armory
Publishers and Purveyors of Rare Books
100 Radcliffe Circle
Jacksonville, NC 28546
Tel:(910)455-3834
www.ironbrigadearmory.com
Printing History:
First: Bacon & Freeman Edition, 1993
Second: Iron Brigade Armory, 2003
E-Book 2013
Title of this volume: Tim Murphy
Copyright 1992 Katherine R. Chandler
All rights reserved
This is a work of fiction. Except for a few famous names and historically recorded incidents, the characters and situations depicted are the author’s creations.
Foreword
Tim Murphy Rifleman, was the first Chandler book I read. Now, with the Perry County series under my belt, to say I have a favorite Chandler book is almost impossible. My favorite seems to be the one I am reading (again) at the time. However, I have no difficulty identifying my favorite characters, and Timothy Murphy is definitely one of them. Chandler writes about a time that required strong men to respond to challenges in an emerging nation, on the verge of war, along an unsettled frontier. Imagine, a young man leaving home, family, and friends to take up the fight for his country. This ageless story from the past rings true in the present; America has endured as a nation because of strong men, each a “rifleman.” Timothy Murphy possesses traits Americans identify with—honor, courage, commitment and a fighting spirit—that cannot be dampened no matter the struggle.
Tim Murphy is more than a work of fiction; it is a novel written around a legendary American. From a challenging beginning, Tim Murphy was able to prosper with the aid of several notable Chandler characters. Responding to his country’s call to oppose the British, Tim Murphy takes up arms with his fellow countrymen and distinguishes himself as a deadly long-range shooter. History tells us that Timothy Murphy was a true patriot and Revolutionary War hero. Like Murphy, the novel’s author is a patriot and a decorated soldier who subscribes to the belief that a man’s word is his bond and that nothing is as important as duty, honor, and country. Rocky Chandler honors the memory of Tim Murphy and honors me with his friendship.
Timothy K. Cameron
Shatto`s Way
Morganza, Maryland
Introduction
As you read, remember that Tim Murphy's was a survival life. In Murphy's time, simply staying alive was brutally difficult and violent death could lurk within any thicket.
The frontier of that time knew only personal law, and only personal strength made that law.
In a more civilized sense, personal strength (power, wealth, know how, guts, clout) still does, but now the weak may fail to receive justice.
In the Allegheny Mountains of the 1700's, the weak usually died.
Roy F. Chandler
Author
Chapter 1
When they had launched the canoe, their breath had steamed in sharp air, and the broadening Susquehanna had been carpeted in a dank mist common to late fall mornings. They took the rhythm of paddling with some pleasure, allowing its easy downriver pace to heat their bodies. When the sun came, it was warm and strong and the river soon glittered with its bright reflection. The signs were good; the corn gathering would be successful and a welcome change from daily routine.
The party was led by Belcher, named for his ability and willingness to erupt shockingly loud burpings. The four women would harvest the corn. They would pick and husk, and, if their camp proved safe and comfortable, the party might linger while the women shelled the ears. Two young men were along for security, although none would be needed. The whites had fled south abandoning their ripened fields. Only suns earlier, Belcher had seen this on a foraging party. There had been no doubt; the cabins were emptied, and livestock was gone. With Delaware and Shawnee parties roaming, whites would tremble in their distant forts. The Seneca of Belcher's longhouse would profit from the whites' clearing and planting. That they should was only right, for the whites intruded on land long claimed by the Iroquois Confederacy.
The party traveled in two canoes, and working back upriver would be easier without the burden of a load of corncobs. Stripped cobs were useful. They could be burned and pipes were made of them. During bitter months, deer could sometimes be lured to cob piles as well. Still, their longhouse at the Chilesquakee village lay north of Shamokin, and cobs were not worth that long paddle.
Before the sun was high, Belcher guided the canoes across the river to the west bank. Downstream, the Susquehanna split Kittatinny Mountain and left the endless hills for the softer land beyond. There, whites ruled, and the Indian was unwelcome.
Close ahead an island protruded. Whites called it Haldeman's Island. Beyond, separating the Susquehanna and the intruding Juniata River, lay Duncan's Island, another white name sour on Seneca tongues. There the whites' fields lay.
Belcher suffered slight anxiety. When his hunting party had searched the cabin, no one had expressed interest in the cornfields; of course, neither had he. Once home he had hurried to assemble his corn gatherers. It seemed unlikely others would have arrived sooner. It would be mortifying to discover the fields already stripped. Until he saw the ripened ears still waiting, the Belcher would know uncertainty.
White fields were not the ordered and weeded crops of the longhouse people. White fields were too new for that. At best the fields were small and stump dotted. More often the corn was planted around trees dead from girdling, their naked branches hunching like skeletal wings above the ripened crops. The corn itself was nearly lost among weedy growth. Whites were always too busy opening new fields to properly tend those already planted.
These whites were dirty and disorganized. They shoved against the lands of the Iroquois, living mostly alone as if cast out by their villages. Their cabins were crude structures and lacked the amenities of the commonest Iroquois longhouses. Belcher's party would not use the whites' cabin. Fleas and lice would be there. Neither was welcome in the Chilesquakee village.
Because he was careful, Belcher beached the canoes before the whites' clearing. He and the younger men faded into the forest. The women waited in the canoes. If all was well, Belcher would signal. If it was not, the canoes could quickly escape.
Before they reached the clearing, Belcher heard the sounds of harvesting. One of the young men exclaimed softly, and Belcher wished to curse aloud but there were two fields. Perhaps one had not yet been claimed.
They were into the corn before a voice was heard. White Talk! The Seneca dropped into fighting crouch. Weapons were snatched from belt loops and sheaths. Bows were at the canoes, but there were hatchets, and the youngest clutched a stone headed club.
Unmoving, the Seneca listened. The Belcher knew shame. Unheeding, he had walked almost into an enemy's camp. The story would be told at the fire, and he would have to live with it.
The whites made the noises of three, although more could be resting or in the further field. Two men and a woman could be heard. Belcher believed there would be no more. The planter had risked to come north to harvest his crop for winter. The Belcher's lips tightened. The whites would not return corn to their fort on the fishing creek.
When General Braddock's grand army had been routed and slaughtered by French and Indian forces, William Baskins had loaded his worldly possessions onto the family's two horses and fled to the safety of the heavily armed Fort Hunter. There he, his wife Martha, and the two children erected a bark cabin and waited for the almost certain appearance of hostile savages.
The war parties came, and reports of slaughter along the upper reaches of the rivers and creeks west of the Susquehanna were received in horrifying detail—often by terrified and bloodied survivors. The Fort overflowed, and supplies were severely rationed. Relief was unpromised, and the first hints of winter appeared in wind and blown clouds with early sprinklings of dying leaves.
The wave of hostiles had faded with encroaching fall, and a few armed parties ventured across the Susquehanna to harvest desperately needed grain. William Baskins gazed north longingly; only a long day's paddle upriver his own corn would be ripe and waiting. A single day could harvest it all. He, his wife, and one man could snatch the ears, hustle them into a waiting boat, and be gone. With their harvest, the Baskins would not fear winter starvation. Without it? Without the corn to eat and to trade, he had nothing. The farm
er feared for their lives.
For a one fifth share, Thomas McLean would come. McLean also had a boat. A beamy craft made of planks, it would be difficult to force upstream, but the boat could carry an immense cargo and their burdened passage would be downriver.
They would go up the Susquehanna's east bank. That was safest. He, Baskins, would cross the river before first light and scout to see that all was clear. Then the boat could be brought across, and in a single day they would strip the fields and be gone. The children would be brought along. The girl was old enough to be useful, and the boy would be safe in the boat. The plan was simple. It appeared that only the illest of fortune could endanger them.
The chance seemed worth taking. Duncan's Island lay almost at the Iroquois doorstep, but the six nations of that confederacy had not risen against the English settlements.
It appeared unlikely that war parties of lesser tribes would still be nearby. Soon winter cold would clamp its icy grip on the land, and the warring Shawnee and Delaware, whose villages were across the mountains, had their own lodges to stock for winter.
The simple plan had become a monster. More barge than boat, McLean’s craft had fought them nearly to a standstill. For two brutal days the men and the wife had tugged and hauled upstream, across bars, over rocks, and through surging rapids. Where a canoe would have slipped easily the heavy boat demanded constant effort. In bitterly cold water, over boulder-strewn bottoms, they fell repeatedly, to be immersed scraped, and exhausted. If there had been an option, Baskins would have quit and retreated to their meager bark shelter, but the ripened corn was the family's hope for a winter and spring without starvation.
At the ford, just above the Juniata's joining, the others, wearied to the bone, waited while Baskins crossed. He disappeared into the night's gloom, his old musket held high, powder horn tightly corked and fastened at his neck. Fording the Susquehanna was not dangerous, but footing was clumsy and wet gunpowder would make their single firearm useless.