Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. A native of Baldwin County, Alabama, he was a first son and eldest of 11 children. Receiving a primary education from a private tutor, he became a graduate of the University of South Carolina in 1849. His father’s death in the same year of his graduation, made it necessary for his return to his mother’s side in Arkansas to assist in the management of the family farm and plantation. Moving to Searcy, Arkansas in 1853, he studied law and subsequently became a lawyer after his admittance to the Arkansas Bar Association. The citizens of White County, Arkansas elected him county and circuit clerk in 1856. He remained at this station up until the time of the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861. He became Inspector General in the Arkansas militia and was authorized to organize a regiment of troops that would become the 21st Arkansas Infantry. After its organization, he was made its Colonel and commander. Assigned to serve in Brigadier General Benjamin McCulloch's Brigade, he led his regiment during the fighting at the Missouri battle of Wilson’s Creek. An honorable mention in McCulloch’s official report of this 1861 battle affirms that “he led his regiment into action with the greatest coolness, being always in the front of his men”. During the pivotal 1862 Arkansas battle of Pea Ridge (aka The battle of Elkhorn or Elkhorn Tavern), McRae's regiment again earned praise for its gallant and meritorious actions from the commanding officer who led the defeated Confederate forces there, General Earl Van Dorn. He was commissioned a Brigadier General on November 5, 1862. In 1863, he had an active role in the little known battle of Helena, Arkansas, a diversion battle that Confederates surmised would relieve the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi and Confederate General John Clifford Pemberton forces there from the smothering siege of Union General Ulysses S. Grant (the attempt failed and Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to federal forces on July 4, 1863). Thereafter, he remained primarily in Arkansas commanding his men at the battles at Mark’s Mill and Jenkins’ Ferry. Taking leave from the Confederate army, he resigned his commission of Brigadier General in November, 1864 and return to his Searcy law practice. He received an eventual pardon on August 8, 1866. Entering public service in the post-war years, he was elected to the position of Deputy Secretary of State of Arkansas; served as Commissioner for Arkansas at the World’s Fair in New Orleans and became Vice President of the Bureau of Emigration for Arkansas. Suffering from the effects of a stroke the last two years of his life, he died in 1899 in Searcy, Arkansas