Genesee County MI Archives Biographies.....McAlester, Charles E. 1838 - 
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Author: Chapman Bros. (1892)

CHARLES E. McALESTER, B. S. This gentleman has been practicing law in Flint
since 1862 and for several years has filled the office of Justice of the Peace.
He was born in this city December 22, 1838, and is a son of James and Catherine
(Miller) McAlester. The father first came here in the spring of 1836, from his
home in New York where he had married. He was a local preacher of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, and while he worked at his trade of wagon-making during the
week, he preached in different parts of the county on Sundays until his health
failed. For some years he was an invalid, his death occurring September 9, 1872.
He left a wife and one son, our subject. Miles D., of the United States Army,
the other son, had died April 23, 1869. The mother still lives in this city at
the age of eighty-three years.

  Our subject worked at the trade of wagon-making with his father for a time,
and after teaching for about a year he entered the literary department of the
University of Michigan in 1857 and graduated therefrom in 1861 with the degree
of Bachelor of Science. He studied law with Levi Walker and with Hon. E. H.
Thompson and was admitted to the bar in 1862, but as the war then interested him
he raised a company which became Company C, Twenty-third Michigan Infantry, and
being made Captain of it they were sent South. They had to endure severe service
and a long-march of two hundred miles in Kentucky and on account of ill health
he was obliged to take lighter duty. After four weeks spent in a hospital at
Louisville he was detailed by Gen. J. T. Boyle as Judge Advocate of
Court-Martial at Louisville, and afterward was placed with Gen. Burnside in
charge of the defenses of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

  As he had made a specialty of his engineering course at Ann Arbor he was
enabled to take the position of Commander of the Engineering Battalion of the
Twenty-third Army Corps, and finally acted as Chief Engineer of that corps
during the siege of Knoxville and campaigns against Longstreet in Eastern
Tennessee. During the Atlanta Campaign, when the army was a little south of
Kenesaw Mountain, he was transferred to the department of the Cumberland, and
was ordered to Chattanooga to organize Company B, of the First United States
Veteran Volunteer Engineers, organized under a special act of Congress. All of
the officers of this regiment were appointed after a competitive examination
which he passed successfully and served with that body till it was mustered out
of service September 26, 1865. During his connection with that regiment he was
engaged in building pontoon bridges, block houses, etc., with Chattanooga as the
center of operations.

  Returning to Flint at the close of the war Capt. McAlester resumed the
practice of law, and was elected twice to the office of Circuit Court
Commissioner, and later was elected Recorder for the city. In 1873 he engaged in
the fire insurance business, acting as both State and local agent. He is a
member of the Masonic order, of the Knights of Pythias and of the Grand Army of
the Republic, and for eight years has been Secretary of his regimental
association. In every capacity he has shown himself a man of marked abilities
and one whose talents and character make him worthy of the highest appreciation.
Capt. McAlester is a stanch Republican and assisted in the organization of the
party in Eastern Michigan.

  Brevet Brigadier-General Miles D. McAlester, the only brother of our subject,
died at Buffalo, N. Y., April 23, 1869. He was born at Belfast, Allegany County,
that State, and removed with his parents to Flint in 1836, and was there
appointed to the West Point Military Academy in 1852, graduating therefrom in
the Class of '56. Being Second Lieutenant, he served as assistant Engineer at
Ft. Taylor, and on the fortifications of New York Harbor where he was promoted
to the position of Superintending Engineer. He was promoted to the rank of First
Lieutenant and served with distinction in the Army of the Potomac as Assistant
Engineer on the defenses of Washington, and afterward as Chief Engineer of the
Third Corps in the Peninsular Compaign. For meritorious conduct on the field he
was promoted in July, 1862, as Brevet-Major, and afterward as Lieutenant-Colonel
and during his service in the department of the Ohio he was made Captain of
Engineers in 1863. At the siege of Mobile he was Chief Engineer on the Staff of
Gen. Canby —and for meritorious service was made Brevet Brigadier-General.

  A short respite from his arduous duties was afforded by his detail as
Instructor of Practical Military Engineering and principal Assistant Professor
of Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and later he
served as Chief of the Engineering Division of the Army of

West Mississippi. After much study of the mouth of the Mississippi River he
designed and built under contract from the Government the United States Dredge
Boat "Essayons" which was completed in 1868 and was a notable success. His work,
of which we have given only a slight sketch, made him a noted man throughout the
army and great grief was expressed by the officers, especially those connected
with the engineering corps, on account of his untimely death.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

Portrait and Biographical Record of Genesee, Lapeer and Tuscola Counties,
Michigan, Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative
Citizens, Together with Biographies of all the Governors of the State, and of
the Presidents of the United States

Chicago:
Chapman Bros.
1892

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