Born in New York, NY. Cpl Mackie enlisted in the Federal Marine Corps on Aug. 23 1861.

He was the first Marine to be awarded the Navy issue Medal of Honor. His citation reads:  "On board the USS Galena in the attack on Fort Darling at Drewry's Bluff, James river, on May 15, 1862. As enemy shellfire raked the deck of his ship, Corporal Mackie fearlessly maintained his musket fire against the rifle pits along shore and, when ordered to fill vacancies at guns caused by men wounded and killed in action manned the weapon with skill and courage."

After receiving his Medal of Honor on 10 July 1863, the Corporal was transferred to the Norfolk Navy Yard and was subsequently posted to the nine-gun sloop USS Seminole as "Orderly Sergeant in Charge." For the remainder of the war Mackie served aboard this ship. He was discharged from the Corps 24 August 1865 in Boston, after having completed four years and four months of service with the Marines.

He later married and settled in the Philadelphia P.N., area. Mackie died in 1910.

An interesting after note on the action which earned him his Medal of Honor, Drewry's Bluff, and the Confederate Fort which the Union was attacking was a major training base and post for the small Confederate Marine Corps. It was never taken from the river, but was eventually outflanked during the Federal push on Richmond. Today it is a National Park with several of the revetments still in evidence.