Macomb, Alexander

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Macomb, Alexander

(məkōm`), 1782–1841, American army officer, b. Detroit, Mich. He entered the army in 1799. In the War of 1812, as brigadier general in command at Plattsburgh, N.Y., in the absence of Gen. Ralph Izard, he repulsed (Sept. 11, 1814) the assault of a greatly superior force under Sir George Prevost; this action, accompanied by the complete defeat of a squadron on Lake Champlain by Thomas Macdonough, caused the British to retreat to Canada. From 1828 until his death he was commanding general of the U.S. army.

Macomb, Alexander

(1782–1841) soldier; born in Detroit, Mich. Son of a prosperous trader, he received a regular army commission in 1799; he then became one of the first to train at West Point and was promoted captain after graduation. He served with the Corps of Engineers (1805–12), working on coast fortifications in the Carolinas and Georgia. In 1814 he defeated a larger British force at Plattsburg, N.Y. By 1821 he was head of the Corps of Engineers and he became commanding general of the entire U.S. Army from 1828–41.
References in periodicals archive ?
Near the start of the Revolutionary War, William and Alexander Macomb, Scots-Irish traders from New York, illegally purchased Grosse Isle from the Potawatomi people.
The South Doesn't Own Slavery
One of the most interesting literary curiosities from Michigan's territorial era is a play written by War of 1812 hero and native son Alexander Macomb. Titled "Pontiac: or, The Siege of Detroit," the drama purports to be an accurate portrayal of the tumultuous events of 1763 and the Ottawa chieftain at the center of the rebellion.
The playwright and Pontiac
To face the British juggernaut of nearly 11,000, supported by a fleet of one frigate, a brig, two sloops and 12 gunboats, the Americans had Brigadier General Alexander Macomb heading up their land forces with 1,500 regular troops and 1,900 militia, while recently promoted Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough led his naval squadron consisting of one corvette, a brig, a schooner, a sloop and 10 gunboats.
The battle of Plattsburgh: America reverses Brish fortunes 1814
Coincidentally, the Commanding General of the Army at that time was Alexander Macomb, a former engineer officer.
The Essayons Button
The result, he claimed, was an army of men who "awoke from their stupor with abhorrence, anxious only to devise means how they are to escape from their dread condition." (15) Commanding General Alexander Macomb firmly warned recruiters not to accept intoxicated men for the army and not to give the oath of service until twenty-four hours after the recruit signed the enlistment papers.
The progressive agent of mischief: the whiskey ration and temperance in the United States Army
Alexander Macomb: Major General, Commander in Chief of American Army 1828- 1841.
FAMOUS ULSTER-SCOTS
Appendixes provide the orders of battle, lists of significant participants and casualties, original documents, and the after-action reviews sent by Macdonough, Army commander Alexander Macomb, and the senior surviving officer of the Royal Navy.
The Final Invasion: Plattsburgh, the War of 1812's Most Decisive Battle. (Book Reviews)
Childless Lieutenant Robert Anderson told his mother Sarah that "you did not whip me as often as I deserved," but he promised to "have my boys whipped enough to make up for it." Colonel Alexander Macomb (the commanding general from 1828 to 1841), who already had a son, wrote to Major John De Barth Walbach in 1825 criticizing severity as a method of child-rearing, specifically referring to Sylvanus Thayer's strict regulations as Superintendant at West Point.
Flexible gender roles during the market revolution: family, friendship, marriage, and masculinity among U.S. Army officers, 1815-1846
Among the more successful were the anonymous Indian Wife (1830), Pontiac, or the Siege of Detroit by General Alexander Macomb, and Metamora, or The Last of the Wampanoags by John A.
1830: Publishing; arts and music; popular entertainment; architecture; theatre
Alexander Macomb, commanding general of the army (1828-1836) and promoted to captain (June 1836); was assigned to staff duty in Washington (1836-1841), becoming assistant adjustant general with a promotion to major (1838); he served as chief of staff to Col.
Cooper, Samuel (1798-1876)
Alexander Macomb's Pontiac, or, The Siege of Detroit (1835), produced in 1838 at the National Theater in Washington.
Ponteach, or, The Savages of America (1766)
Established in 1776, just days after the Declaration of Independence was signed, the farm of William and Alexander Macomb once occupied all of Grosse Ile.
For more than 200 years ... one family's farm
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