Timothy Murphy, 24, left his October 1780 wedding to Margaret Feeck when a messenger warned of a British advance on Middle Fort in the Schoharie Valley of New York. He and fellow riflemen using Pennsylvania Long Rifles rode to Fort Defiance, fought a delaying action against Sir John Johnson's mixed force of regulars, Loyalists, Native allies and Butler's Rangers, then continued sniping after withdrawing inside.

The next day Murphy fired warning shots that turned back a white-flag surrender party despite Major Melancthon Woolsey's orders to admit them, telling Woolsey he would shoot him rather than allow the flag inside. The riflemen held the fort until the British withdrew, an episode Patrick K. O'Donnell recounts in Revolutionary Snipers on Continental Army frontier marksmen.