His birthplace is sometimes listed as South Carolina, but more recent sources[citation needed] indicate he was born in Bibb County and was the illegitimate son of Peggy Murrah, a daughter of Charles and Avarilla Jones Murrah.

In 1861 he declined to run for a seat in the Confederate Congress because of ill health, probably tuberculosis, but his health recovered sufficiently that he accepted a commission in the 14th Texas Infantry, a Confederate Army unit commanded by former governor Edward Clark.

Murrah soon resigned his commission, but he won the gubernatorial election in 1863, and served until the fall of the Confederacy.

When he learned that Union Army forces were en route to Texas, Murrah fled to Mexico with other Confederate leaders.

In 1850 Murrah married Sue Ellen Taylor, daughter of a prominent Texas plantation owner.