Whakakiia te rerenga e whai ake nei: I uru a MacRae hei hoia takitahi i roto i te ope hiko marama o Monroe, a ka pootihia hei rangatira i te wa i riro ai ia hei Kamupene B, Fifteenth North Carolina regiment infantry. I te Paenga-whāwhā 1862, i whakatairangahia ia ki te rangatira rangatira. I te pakanga o te Peninsula me te Manassas Tuarua ko tana rerenga tetahi waahanga o te parirau a Howell Cobb. I te Pakanga o Antietam, i whakahau a MacRae i te piritihana i whakahekehia ki te 250 tangata i te wa o te whawhai i roto i nga wiki kua hipa. E toru nga whakaekenga a te Uniana i whakahokia e te parirau a MacRae engari i hoki mai ia i te wa e 50 noa iho ana nga tangata e toe ana, a kua pau tana taonga patu. I Fredericksburg i whawhai ia me tana rerenga i Marye's Heights. I muri tonu i te pakanga i whakawhitihia te 15 o North Carolina ki te brigade North Carolina a Brigadier General John Rogers Cooke. I whara kino a Cooke i Fredericksburg a kaore ia e hoki ki te parirau tae noa ki te Paenga-whawha 1863. I te Hui-tanguru 1863, i whakatairangahia a MacRae ki te koromatua. I mahi tenei parirau i North Carolina me te tonga-rawhiti o Virginia tae noa ki muri o te Gettysburg Campaign. i te Hui-tanguru, 1863, koronel, a i te tau 1864 i whakawhiwhia ki te brigadier-general. Whai muri i tana hokinga mai ki te ope taua o Northern Virginia, i tohua a MacRae mo te toa i te Pakanga o Bristoe Station. Whai muri i te wharanga o Brigadier General William Whedbee Kirkland i te Pakanga o Cold Harbor i whakatairangahia a MacRae mo te wa poto ki te tuunga o te rangatira rangatira, a i whakawhiwhia ki te rangatira o te pirihimana a Kirkland (koinei hoki te pirihimana o Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew). I te
Ko nga pirihimana a Ream Station MacRae, Lane, me Cooke i peia te wehenga tuarua a John Gibbon o Winfield Scott Hancock's II Corps mai i ona turanga i mua i a raatau ka hopu i tetahi papahiko pu. Whai muri i tana mahi nui i te Pakanga o Boydton Plank Road i noho tonu a MacRae ki te ope taua i roto i te Whakatairanga Appomattox.