Samuel Harkness

We really know very little about our McAlwee ancestors. According to Robert Henry Harkness, George Franklin Barrett was married to Miss Margaret Jane McAlwee at Washington D.C. Nov. 13, 1855, by Rev. Dr Holmead of Grace P.E. Church, but our historian did not give the names of her parents, or where she was born. Margaret Jane (McAlwee) Barrett died seven years before George, May 10, 1873, 8:40 P.M. She was a beautiful woman and a devoted wife and mother. She and her children and mother-in-law went South with her husband: and she and her mother-in-law were very zealous in helping Mr. Barrett provide for the Confederate soldiers who came in their way.

Mr. Harkness also tells us that Mr Benjamin F. McAlwee, brother of Margaret Jane McAlwee Barrett (mother of Anna Theresa Barrett Harkness), had a splendid record as a soldier in the Civil War, in which he served four years and three months. A newspaper clipping transcribed below gives but a hint of the perils he passed strength during his military service. He claimed to have been under fire more than forty times. His service was in Co B First D.C. Volunteers, and Co D Third Maryland Veteran Volunteers (Inf.) Later, he became a watchman in the U.S. Treasury Department.

	A Medal of Honor Man.

   On the watch force of the treasury is
Benjamin F. McAlwee, who wears a con-
gressional medal of honor for gallantry in
action before Petersburg, Va., July 20, 1864.
Mr. McAlwee was born in the District of
Columbia January 7, 1838, and left lucrative
employment in the Washington navy yard
April 17, 1861, to enlist in Company B, 1st
District of Columbia Volunteers, for three
months.  Upon the expiration of this time
he enlisted in Company D, 3d Maryland
Veteran Volunteer Infantry.  At the end of
three years he again enlisted, serving un-
til July 31, 1865.  He was awarded a special
furlough of twenty-five days by order of
General Meade for soldierly conduct and
bravery.  At the explosion of the mine in 
front of Petersburg, July 30, 1864, Sergeant
McAlwee was in command of his company.
The color bearer, a soldier named McCabe,
was killed.  Sergeant McAlwee seized the
colors and kept them at the same time
continuing his command of the company.

A Click here to visit a wonderful website which gives more information about the Medal of Honor and all its recipients. Page down to click on the link to the Roll of Honor, and then click the "MOH by War" button. Then you have to select the appropriate alphabet button to see Benjamin McAlwee's name. Finally you will get to an image representing his medal, with this inscription: "Picked up a shell with burning fuse and threw it over the parapet into the ditch, where it exploded; by this act he probably saved the lives of comrades at the great peril of his own." (You could just do an internet search on his name to skip all these steps, but it is a nice website.)

Click here to see a copy of Ben McAlwee's obituary (in PDF format) from the Congressional Cemetery. This tells us more details about his life, his wife’s name, and the fact that he had two children. One of his children was named James, probably after his uncle, and his obituary is also attached. His daughter, Margaret Teresa Baptista was also buried at the Congressional Cemetery, and her obituary is included as well (also in PDF format). She apparently left three nephews, whether the sons of James, or some other sibling, cannot be discovered at this time (2002).

According to Mr. Harkness, Mr. Benjamin McAlwee's brother James was a soldier in the U.S. Regular Army. He was at one time orderly to Gen. W.T. Sherman. He was killed during an engagement with Indians subsequent to the Civil War.

The only reference to a James McAlwee on the Internet is of one who enlisted on September 12, 1864, and then deserted Oct. 2, 1864, near Petersburg, Va. This is not likely the same person, as this came from a list of Civil War soldiers from New Jersey. One can hardly blame James, if it were he, after working so closely with General Sherman. But as my sister Alice Standin reminds us, “what General Sherman did caused eternal bitterness in the South, but it drove all romantic notions of war from the minds of the Confederates.  He's the one who said "War is hell" and “War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.”He felt the only way to end the war was to give the rebels the hard hand of it and so he turned his troops loose to do their worst as they marched to the sea.  It was a terrible war, but if he and his troops did not uphold the notion of honor so dear to Southerners, they did move the war toward its rightful conclusion. War is never pretty, never easy and that war was a terrible war.  If Confederates deserted, under the circumstances they endured and the position they were in, it is understandable.  Of course, James may have found Sherman's approach unconscionable, many did and do. But General Sherman, no doubt was as weary of bloodshed as anyone and more so. His notion was probably "If you want war, I'll show you war—no noncombatants, all fair game," scorch the earth and starve the enemy into submission—no chance for care packages from the quiet farms of home. Brutal, but effective.  More died and died horribly in the course of the Civil War than in the two world wars combined.  I don't know if I wouldn't desert.”

According to Alice, the family lore is that Margaret Jane McAlwee’s brother Benjamin (who was a Yankee of course) used to re-fight Civil War battles with his brother-in-law George Barrett (Margaret's Husband, who was a Rebel) using the family’s gold band china as props at the dining room table.

A sister of Margaret, Benjamin and James was Sarah, depicted in the image below, taken from a daguerreotype. According to Mary Harkness Layman, she had three sons, whose relatives lived in Detroit Michigan, it is believed her husband’s name was August.

Dagerreotype of Sarah McAlwee, one of Ben's Sisters