[1] During the start of the American Civil War, he served as valet to General James Longstreet of the Confederate States Army.

[3] His father William Murrell, Sr. served as a politician in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana in the Reconstruction era.

[6] During the Reconstruction era, Murrell Jr. edited the newspapers the Madison Vindicator, and the New Jersey Trumpet.

[3][7][1] Murrell Jr. was a major on the staff for Governor William Pitt Kellogg, he was prompted to colonel and oversaw the Louisiana State National Guard.

[1] In 1891, he was appointed by secretary John Willock Noble to a role in the United States Department of the Interior.