Father: Matthias [or Mathias] Brickell Murfree
Mother: Mary Ann Roberts
1850 - Lived, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN [indexed in the 1850 U.S. Census as James Mury]
- A.M. degree, Union University, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN
1856-1857 - Attended medical lectures, Medical Department of the University of Nashville, Nashville, TN
1857-1859 - Attended two full medical courses, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA (from: Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN)
03/00/1859 - M.D. degree, Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, PA (preceptors: Dr. J. E. Wendel & Dr. R. S. Wendel)
1860 - Practiced medicine, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN [indexed in the 1860 U.S. Census as J. B. Murprea]
1860 - Author of paper entitled, "Case of Lumbar Abscess" [?journal]
05/02/1861 - Enlisted as Pvt., Co. I, 1st TN Infantry Field's), Murfreesboro, TN
06/09/1861 - Appointed "Regimental Asst. Surgeon", Provisional Army of Tennessee, by Gov. Harris
09/11/1861 - Appointed Asst. Surgeon, Provisional Army of the Confederate States
12/01/1861 - Asst. Surgeon, Gen. Hospital [?where]
01/14/1862 - Married, Ada Juliett Talley, in TN
05/01/1862 - Senior Asst. Hospital Surgeon, Gen. Hospital, Knoxville, TN
07/05/1862 - Asst. Surgeon, Gen. Hospital, Knoxville, TN
10/02/1862 - “Surgeon J. B. Murfree will report for duty to Surgeon Frank A. Ramsey, at Knoxville, Tennessee.” [S.O. 230/34]
12/04/1862 - Appointed Surgeon, Provisional Army of the Confederate States, to rank from 08/20/1862
12/04/1862 - Ordered to report to Gen. B. Bragg
04/04/1863 - Confirmed as Surgeon from TN by the Confederate States Senate
06/01/1863 - Surgeon-in-charge, Asylum Hospital, Knoxville, TN
07/01/1863 - Surgeon-in-charge, Asylum Hospital, Knoxville, TN
08/06/1863 - “The following-named medical officers will constitute an army medical board, to convene at Knoxville, Tenn., for the examination of applicants and medical officers: Surgeons W. L. Hilliard, (president,) R. D. Hamilton, J. B. Murfree. The junior member will act as recorder.” [S.O. 186/06]
08/06/1863 - Member, Confederate Army Board of Medical Examination "for the examination of applicants and medical officers"
08/27/1863 - Asylum Hospital, Knoxville, TN, was abandoned during a "stampede"
09/18/1863 - Ordered to "proceed to gather up the Hospital property belonging to Asylum Hospital, recently closed at Knoxville, and take the same to Dalton, Ga. where the Asylum Hospital will be reopened. The Quarter Master will furnish transportation" S. H. Stout, Medical Director of Hospitals [Army of Tennessee]
09/28/1863 - Surgeon, Dalton, GA
10/08/1863 - Surgeon-in-charge, Asylum Hospital, Dalton, GA
12/03/1863 - Surgeon, Atlanta, GA
01/27/1864 - “The army medical board convened at Knoxville, Tenn., by Paragraph VI, Special Orders No. 186, August 6, 1863, is hereby dissolved, and the following-named officers composing said board will report without delay to the medical director of the department in which they are serving for assignment to duty: Surgeons W. L. Hilliard, R. D. Hamilton, J. R. Murfree.” [S.O. 22/15]
01/31/1864 - Signed receipt for $25 in Abingdon, VA, for "Hire of Negroe Boy Martin as cook in Washington Hospital [Abingdon, Washington Co., VA] from Jany 1st 1864 to Jany 31, 1864 . . . "
02/01/1864 - Surgeon-in-charge, Washington Hospital, Abingdon, VA
02/16/1864 - Signed receipt for $25 in Abingdon, VA, for "Hire of Negroe Girl Covinea as Laundress in Washington Hospital [Abingdon, Washington Co., VA] from Jany 1st 1864 to Febry 16, 1864 . . . "
03/18/1864 - Surgeon, Emory and Henry Hospital, Emory, Washington Co., VA
04/18/1864 - Relieved from duty at Bristol, TN, and ordered to "assume charge without delay of hospital at Emory Virginia" By order of Surgeon General. Signed Frank A Ramsey, Surgeon and Medical Director [Army of Tennessee]
05/02/1864 - Surgeon-in-charge, Hospital, Bristol, TN [signed receipt for coffin lumber "for burying dead"]
06/20/1864 - Surgeon-in-charge, Gen. Hospital, Emory, VA
08/31/1864 - "Surgeon W. L. Hilliard, R. D. Hamilton and J. B. Murfree will constitute a medical board to examine the medical officers of General Morgan's command and applicants who may be authorized to appear before it" [S.O. 206/23]
09/12/1864 - Surgeon, Hospital, Emory, VA
09/20/1864 to 10/18/1864 - Served on Army Medical Examining Board at Bristol, Tennessee and Wytheville, Virginia
10/08/1864 - Confronted Confederate guerilla, Champ Ferguson, who had illegally entered Emory and Henry Hospital, Emory, VA, with about 12-15 fellow guerillas, to kill Lt. Elza C. Smith, 13th KY Cavalry [U.S.], and to kill wounded black U.S. soldiers who were patients in the hospital. Ferguson threatened to kill Dr. Murfree, but a member of Ferguson's gang stepped in between the two men. [After the Civil War, Ferguson was captured, tried, convicted, and hanged for these crimes and others.]
11/01/1864 - Surgeon-in-charge, Emory and Henry Hospital, Emory, VA
01/27/1864 - Report for duty [S.O. 22/15]
01/09/1865 - Surgeon-in-charge, Emory and Henry Hospital, Emory, VA Department of East Tennessee
02/11/1865 - Medical Officer, Gen. Hospital, Emory, VA
03/09/1865 - Medical Officer, Hood Hospital, Bristol, TN
1865-1867 - Practiced medicine alone, Murfreesboro, TN
1868 - Practiced medicine with Dr. L. W. Knight, Murfreesboro,TN
1869 - Practiced medicine with Dr. H. H. Clayton, Murfreesboro, TN
1870 - Practiced medicine with Dr. H. H. Clayton, Ward 6, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN [indexed in the 1870 U.S. Census as J. B. Marfell]
1873 - Author of paper entitled, "On Bloodletting" [?journal]
1874 - Practiced medicine with Dr. H. H. Clayton, Murfreesboro, TN
1874 - Secretary & treasurer, Rutherford Co. Medical Society, Rutherford Co., TN
1874 - Member, Medical Society of Tennessee
1879 - Practiced medicine alone, Murfreesboro, TN
1880 - Practiced medicine, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN [indexed in the 1880 U.S. Census as J. B. Menfree]
1886,1890 - Practiced medicine, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN
1891 - Member, Southern Surgical and Gynecological Association
1893 - Practiced medicine, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN
1895 - Professor of Principles and Practice of Surgery, University of the South, Sewanee, TN [commuted by train to give lectures in Sewannee, TN]
1898 - Attended a post-graduate general surgery course, New York Polyclinic, New York, NY
1900 - Practiced medicine, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN
1910 - Practiced surgery, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN
- President, Tennessee State Medical Association
- Member, Middle Tennessee Medical Association
- Member, Tri-state Medical Society of Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia
- Member, American Medical Association
- Local surgeon at Murfreesboro, TN, for the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway
- Mayor, Murfreesboro, TN, for two terms
- Member and elder, Presbyterian Church, Murfreesboro, TN
04/24/1912 - Died at his home, Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co., TN (cause: nephritis)

Sheila Hewitt, Brent Nimmo, Michael Angelo, and Bob Krick provided input to this biography.

This biographical sketch is from:
Hambrecht, F.T. & Koste, J.L., Biographical
register of physicians who served the
Confederacy in a medical capacity.
10/15/2014. Unpublished database.