He met Augusta Anna Jones during a confederate Cavalry raid through central KY during the war, Oregon (Warwick) being a good place to crossthe Ky. River from the Mercer Co. side to the Woodford Co. side.

Source Marie Whalen

Burial: Jones McMurry Graveyard Mercer Co Kentucky.

James Emerson McMurray -- Early Family Life
James had 3 brothers and 1 sister. One of the trades their father Thomas practiced was hat making, and one day, at the age of 5, Henry, the oldest of the brothers, found a bottle of blue vitriol his father used in his work. He drank it and promptly died. Their sister Jane died at age 17. Their mother, Sally T. Ware McMurray, died 1 year afterJames was born. She was 28 years old. At the time the family was living either with or near Sally's parents -- Henry and Jane Ware. Fromall appearances it looks as if Henry was well off, possessing large land holdings on the headwaters of the west Fork of Back Creek in Garrard Co., Ky. However, Thomas decided to leave after Sally, his wife, died in 1837. Perhaps he didn't get along well with his in-laws, or maybe he just wanted to make a new start. We'll probably never know. He left 3 of the surviving children, Jane, Thomas, and Tinsley with Henry and Jane Ware, took James Emerson with him, and headed for Missouri. He got as far as Stringtown in Anderson Co. and changed his mind, leaving James (age 2?) in the care of someone there with instructions to return him to his grandparents in Garrard Co. while he traveled on to Missouri by himself. So, James, Thomas , and Tinsley grew up with their grandparents.
Civil War
James was 25 years old when he volunteered for service in the Confederate Cavalry with a group of young men from Harrodsburg called "The Kentucky Rebels." I had to find out the details of his service in otherways, since virtually nothing about this most interesting period of his life was ever passed down orally or otherwise through the succeeding generations of the family. Apparently he never talked about it once he returned (understandable, after witnessing the horrors of a civil war), or if he did, the information was not passed along. The onlyexplanation I ever heard was that "he joined the Confederate cavalry because he owned slaves."
This is a fascinating story. His unit became attached to then Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest's command in Tennessee. The company was designated "G" Co., 3rd Tennessee regiment, Confederate Cavalry. Their Captain was David Logan from Danville, Ky. No real action was seen until the battle of Sacramento, Ky., where Capt. Logan's Co. was commended for gallantry. The military genius of this commander, whom Gen. Sherman referred to as " that devil Forrest," does not need to be rehearsedhere, but it must have been interesting to serve in this regiment. Next came Ft. Donelson, where Co. G was part of a battalion which was reconnoitering over towards Ft. Henry when the order came from Forrest to return to Ft. Donelson, which the battalion commander refused to do! After Gen. Grant had won the day at Ft. Donelson, C.S.A. Army Gens. Floyd, Pillow, and Buckner decided to give up. Forrest informed them that "I did not come here for the purpose of surrendering my command," and led his men through the icy backwaters of the Cumberland Riverto Nashville -- the famous escape from Ft. Donelson. However, Co. G was captured and spent the next 7 months in captivity in Camp Butler, Illinois, and was not present with Forrest at the Battle of Shiloh. James Emerson McMurray was paroled in September, 1862 and exchanged atVicksburg, Mississippi. His Co. was then transferred to general JohnHunt Morgan's command in Tennessee, becoming "I" Co. in the 7th Ky. Cavalry, commanded by then Col. Richard Montgomery Gano, a Kentuckian who had setlled in Tarrant Co., Texas (now Ft. Worth), but who returnedto Ky. at the commencement of the war. The exploits Gen. Morgan, whois called the "Thunderbolt of the Confrederacy," do not need to be chronicled here. The Co. saw limited action until the summer of 1863, when Gen. Morgan embarked upon the great raid of Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. This raid is chronicled in a new book "The Longest Raid of the Civil War," by Lester V. Horwitz, 1999, published by Farmcourt, Cincinnati, Ohio. (A photograph of James Emerson McMurray is in this book) James Emerson McMurray was captured near the end of this raid at Buffington Island, Ohio as he was trying to make his escape from the Federals across the Ohio River back into Ky. By this time he had risen in rank to Sergeant. The prisoners were processed through Camp Chase,Ohio, then sent to Camp Douglas, Illinois, outside Chicago. The atrocities of Andersonville, Georgia have been well documented. The conditions at Camp Douglas, Illinois were no less horrid, yet they have received little or no attention. Both sides were woefully unprepared tohouse and feed massive amounts of prisoners, and by 1863 the North had adopted a strategy of no longer exchanging prisoners, so a bad situation was made worse. What little extra food and clothing which mightbe given to prisoners was often withheld due to resentment -- it should be given to "our troops instead." The winter of 1863-64 in northern Illinois was one of the most severe up to that time. Constant hunger, incessant cold without proper clothing, smallpox, severely harsh teatment, torture (see "Morgan's Mule," a favorite of the guards) were just a few of the things prisoners had to endure. Many didn't survive, and one can only imagine the horror of watching friends die under these conditions that James Emerson must have experienced. He somehow managed to stay alive until the war was over and was released at Pt. Lookout, Maryland. Returning home to Ky., he married Augusta Ann Jones2 years later, at age 31. A family story states that he had met her during a raid through central Ky. during the war, Oregon being a good place to cross the Ky. River from the Mercer Co. side to the Woodford Co. side. (Source: Arthur Simpson, Marie Whalen, Barbara Randsdell)

The Civil War in Kentucky
Note of irony: from July 2-26, 1863, Gen. John Hunt Morgan, commanderof a Confederate cavalry raid through Indiana and Ohio, was being pursued by Union cavalry as he made his way through southern Ohio towardsthe Ohio river and escape back into Ky. Among those who rode with Morgan ? James Emerson McMurry ? Co. I, 7th Ky. Cavalry, Confederacy. Morgan?s entire command was captured on July 26, 1863 at Buffington Island at the river. Many of the prisoners spent the rest of the war at Camp Douglas, Illinois. Those who survived were exchanged at the end of the war, and James Emerson McMurry returned to Ky., settled in Oregon, married a local girl (Augusta Ann Jones) and became the father of William Thomas McMurry and Sallie E. McMurry. Among those pursuing Morgan that July ? John Vanfleet Patterson ? Co. C, 11th Ky. Cavalry, Union, father of William T. Patterson and Cora Helen Patterson.

Source: Mike McMurray