Surgeon General Robert Murray from Elkridge

Robert Murray (1822-1913) was born in Elkridge and earned his medical degree at University of Pennsylvania in 1843. After serving in the Army for forty years - 1846-1886 - the general retired to live in his childhood home in Elkridge.

"Because of the sudden death of General Crane in 1883 the contest for the surgeon generalcy was reopened and the official and political friends of all the ranking medical officers were besieged to use their influence in favor of the anxious candidates. It had been decided, upon the promotion of Colonel Crane to be Surgeon General that the office of Assistant Surgeon General, although the incumbent was but a Colonel, was a grade superior to that of the other medical officers of the same rank, and when Colonel Crane was promoted to be Surgeon General, Colonel Robert Murray the then senior Colonel was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon General, although he was not brought to Washington to assist the Surgeon General as in the case of his predecessor. President Arthur then very wisely advanced the Assistant Surgeon General to the head of the Corps and Dr. Robert Murray became Surgeon General of the Army.

General Murray was born at Elkridge, then in Anne Arundel Co., Maryland on August 6, 1822. He received his early education at the public schools of his home, supplementing the facilities there afforded by the instruction of private tutors in languages. In 1838 and 1834 he experimented in business affairs in the counting room of Mr. W. G. Harrison in Baltimore, but professional life having greater attractions for him he transferred the scene of his efforts to the University of Maryland and entered upon the study of the healing art. In 1843, he took his degree of M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and further developed his knowledge of medicine by a year—1844-1845—at the Baltimore City and County Alms House Hospital.

He then went before an Army Examining Board, and readily became an approved candidate. Accepting a contract as Acting Assistant Surgeon, he was ordered to Fort Gratiot, Michigan, where in July 1846 he received his commission as Assistant Surgeon in the Army to date from June 29 of that year. Soon thereafter he took passage on the transport ship "Susan Drew" en route from New York to San Francisco, a six months voyage around Cape Horn. He served at Los Angeles, Monterey, and Camp Far West in California during the next four years, when he was given an eastern station at Fort Independence, Boston, Mass., for a year. In 1852 he was selected by Surgeon W. G. Mower, the Attending Surgeon and Medical Purveyor in N. Y.City as his assistant; upon the death of Surgeon Mower in 1853 he continued on duty as Attending Surgeon and Medical Purveyor until the summer of 1854 when he was relieved and ordered to California where he remained until the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion in 1861, receiving meanwhile in June 1860, his promotion to the grade of Surgeon.

Upon his arrival in Washington Major Murray was put on duty as a member of the board to examine Brigade Surgeons of Volunteers and after the Battle of Bull Run was employed in establishing Hospitals in Alexandria.

In September 1861 he was ordered to the field and successively employed during the years 1861 and 1862 as Medical Director and Medical Purveyor with the commands of Generals Robert Anderson, William Tecumseh Sherman, Don Carlos Buell and W. S. Rosecrans in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. During this period he carried an especially heavy load of responsibility, being widely separated from the sources of supply and with the aid mainly of inexperienced medical officers. In every emergency however, he came successfully to the front with ample, although at times necessarily crude, provision for every exigency.

His exceptional administrative capacity was then recognized by his detail in 1863 as Medical Purveyor in Philadelphia where millions of dollars passed through his hands in connection with the medical supply of the vast forces in the field. In 1865, he was transferred to the Pacific coast, where he also conducted the medical purveying work of the far west. When the Army was reorganized into a peace establishment in 1866, he was appointed an Assistant Medical Purveyor with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He continued in charge of this work in San Francisco for eleven years although promoted in that time to the grade of Colonel and Surgeon in June 1876. This service was then followed by two tours of four years each as Medical Director of the Divisions of the Missouri and of the Atlantic respectively. It was while on duty at the latter station in December, 1882, that he was commissioned as Assistant Surgeon General and on November 23, 1883, as Surgeon General of the Army.

With the promotion of Colonel Murray, the office of Assistant Surgeon General ceased to be the second grade in the Medical Department of the Army, it being then ruled that the Assistant Surgeon General was simply one of the Colonels in the Medical Corps, and the Senior Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Glover Perin, was promoted to the vacancy. This rather illogical situation continued until in 1892 all the Colonels became Assistant Surgeon Generals.

The administration of General Murray was a conservative and harmonious one, attention being devoted rather to the improvement of existing conditions than to the initiation of new movements. General Murray was made an honorary member of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States soon after its organization and has uniformly maintained his interest in its affairs.

Upon his retirement, August 6, 1886, he took up his residence at the place of his birth and is still living, 1904, in the evening of a distinguished and successful life at his boyhood's home in Elkridge, Maryland. 
Source: The Surgeon Generals of the Army of the United States of America by James Evelyn Pilcher, 1905 - Sub. by K.T.

 



"MURRAY, Robert, surgeon-general, was born in Howard county, Md., Aug. l6, 1822; son of Daniel and Mary (Dorsey) Murray; grandson of Dr. James and Sarah (Maynadier) Murray and of Edward and Elizabeth Dorsey, and a descendant of Dr. William Murray, born in Scotland, who came to Cambridge, Maryland, in 1716, and of Col. Edward Dorsey, born in Essex county, England, who came to St. Mary's county, Md., about 1645. 

He was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, M.D., 1843; was appointed assistant surgeon U.S.A., June 29, 1846; captain and assistant surgeon in 1851, and major and surgeon, June 23, 1860. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel and colonel, March 13 1865, for faithful and meritorious services during the war. He was appointed assistant medical purveyor and lieutenant-colonel, U.S.A.; 1866; was promoted colonel and surgeon, June 20, 1876; colonel and assistant surgeon-general, Dec. 14, 1882; brigadier-general and surgeon-general, Nov. 23, 1883, and was retired from active service in the army, Aug. 6, 1886, by operation of law. After 1886 he made his home at Eldridge, Md."
Source: THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF NOTABLE AMERICANS. Vol 3, Publ. 1904. Transcribed by Richard Ramos

©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
Forgotten history of Ellicott City & Howard County MD