Peter U. Murphey

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First Lieutenant Peter U. Murphey, CSN

Peter U. Murphey was an officer in the Confederate States Navy during the U.S. Civil War.

Murphey was born in North Carolina. Appointed from that state as a United States Navy midshipman in 1834, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant in 1846. Murphey resigned from the U.S. Navy in April 1861 and became a Confederate States Navy officer in June of that year. In the rank of First Lieutenant, he served in Virginia and North Carolina waters in 1861-62, then was assigned to the Mobile Squadron. He commanded the gunboat CSS Morgan on Mobile Bay, Alabama in 1862, and the gunboat CSS Selma in 1862-64. Wounded when his ship was captured in the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, First Lieutenant Murphy was a prisoner of war until he was exchanged in October. In May 1865, at the end of the Civil War, he surrendered to Federal authorities and was paroled shortly thereafter.