Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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MacOMBmb, Alexander 1782-

Military officer; born in Detroit, Mich., April 3, 1782; entered the army as cornet of cavalry in 1799, and at the beginning of the war with Great Britain, in 1812, was lieutenant-colonel of engineers and adjutant-general of the army. He had five brothers in that contest. He was transferred to the artillery, and distinguished himself on the Niagara frontier. In January, 1814, he was promoted to brigadier-general, and when General Izard withdrew from the military post on Lake Champlain, in the summer of that year, Macomb was left in chief command of that region. In that capacity he won a victory over the British at Plattsburg, Sept. 11. For his conduct on that occasion he was commissioned a major-general and received thanks and a gold medal from Congress.

On the death of General Brown, in 1835, General Macomb was appointed general-in- chief of the armies of the United States, which post he held at the time of his death, in Washington, D. C., June 25, 1841. His remains were interred, with military honors in the congressional cemetery, Washington, and over them stands a beautiful white marble monument, prop-

MacOMBmb's monument.

[63] erly inscribed. He was author of a treatise on Martial law and courts-martial (see Plattsburg, battle of). His son, William Henry (born, June 16, 1818; died, Aug. 12, 1872), entered the navy, as midshipman, in 1834; was engaged against the forts in China in 1856, and in the expedition to Paraguay in 1859, in which he commanded the Metacomet. In the Civil War he was active on the Mississippi and on the coast of North Carolina, attaining the rank of commodore in 1862. In 1869 he commanded the steamship Plymouth, in the European squadron, and was light-house inspector in 1871.