Ulysses Murphy

Name Ulysses Murphy Role Ranch Hand Group PCs Status

Actor: Matthew McConaughey

Concept

War-Weary Veteran

Details

Background

1835: Born in Texas, though it is still part of Mexico when he's born. (Texas Revolution begins.)

1836: The Republic of Texas is officially formed. Ulysses' father presumably dies at the Alamo since he answered the call and never came back. Ulysses' mother will die later in the year of consumption, so he will be mostly raised by his uncle, a businessman with interests in both Mexico and Texas.

1845: The Republic of Texas is annexed by the United States.

1852: At 17, Ulysses marries Juanita, the daughter of one of his uncle's many Mexican business associates. Strangers at first, the two quickly fall in love.

1853: Ulysses' (18) first daughter, María, is born. She is born deaf.

1854: Ulysses' (19) second daughter, Ana, is born.

1855: Ulysses (20) departs the family hacienda along with both his uncle and his wife's father to travel to Mexico City as they are seeking business opportunities and also wish to participate in the reform government that has just overthrown the dictatorship of Antonio López de Santa Anna. It will be twenty years before he sets eyes on his wife again.

1857: After having spent two years traveling all over Mexico and Texas (but not home, dammit!) at the behest of his uncle, Ulysses (22) gets swept up in the 'War of Reform' which is effectively a Mexican civil war. He will be fighting on the side of the liberal government, and both his father-in-law and his uncle will be executed by the other side.

1861: Even though the 'War of Reform' ends, the French intervention technically begins. Ulysses will get swept up in this war as well.

1862: Ulysses fights in the Battle of Puebla on May 5 and is grievously wounded.

1867: The French intervention ends and the short-lived Second Mexican Empire that the French were propping up collapses. Ulysses, looking forward to going home, instead is arrested thanks to the machinations of a rival he made during the war. He will spend the next eight years being bounced from one prison to another to minimize his opportunities to get real justice ... that is, when he's not being used as semi-slave labor on railroad construction throughout Mexico.

1873: The initial segment of rail line between Veracruz and Mexico City is inaugurated, and Ulysses uses the celebrations over this to escape from custody. He will spend the next two years evading capture and surviving however he can.

1875: Twenty years to the day, Ulysses returns home to his family hacienda only to discover that his rival has stolen it and his wife, all the while claiming that he died badly in the war. Both of his daughters are said to be dead, either of illness or during childbirth, and his wife is murdered in front of him when she rejects her 'new' husband. In retaliation, Ulysses kills his rival, the man's cronies, and burns the entire hacienda down. He buries his wife and seriously considers eating a bullet. Instead, he leaves.

1876: Ulysses reaches Babylon, CO and gets a job on a local ranch. The owner's wife, Ana, is of Mexican descent, deaf, and in her early 20s ... but Uly is suffering from the "soldier's heart" and can't inquire if she is who he thinks and hopes she is...

1877: Now.