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Overview
Title: Alexander Macomb
Publication: Brown’s Portrait Gallery
Date: 1930 RePrint
Print Type: Duotone Photo Gravure
Size: 12” x 17” folio
Condition: Excellent
Code: a 1541
Description
Description: Alexander Macomb, Jr. (1782-1841) was the commanding general of the United States Army 1828 to 1841. Born in Detroit, Michigan, Macomb was the son of Alexander Macomb, Sr. and Mary Catherine Navarre. Macomb was commissioned in the Army Corps of Engineers in 1802 and spent five years in charge of coastal fortifications in the Carolinas and Georgia. He won acclaim during the War of 1812 as brigadier-general in command of the frontier of northern New York. At the Battle of Plattsburg on September 11, 1814 with only 1,500 regular troops and some detachments of militia, he was opposed by a British force of 10,531 men under Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost. Macomb's heavily-outnumbered troops fell back before the British columns in a series of skirmishes as Prevost advanced towards the American defensive works. The British were about to launch an assault on the American defenses when the news came through of the defeat of the British naval squadron on Lake Champlain. Prevost needed the squadron to supply his planned advance into Vermont and without it he had no choice but to abandon the expedition and march back to Canada. Although commodore Thomas MacDonough’s sailors and not the army had been responsible for stopping the British invasion, Macomb was nevertheless showered with praise and styled "The Hero of Plattsburgh" . He was promoted to major-general for his conduct at this battle, receiving both the thanks of Congress and a Congressional Gold Medal. When Major General Jacob Brown, the Army’s commanding general, died in February 1828, President John Quincy Adams could have chosen as Brown's successor one of the Army's two brigadier generals, Windfield Scott and Edmund P. Gaines, but they had denounced each other publicly and for months had been contesting for the position. Their quarrels scandalized the Army and drove Adams to nominate Alexander Macomb, the Chief of Engineers, who by then had his rank reverted to colonel, as the Army’s top general. A curious feature of Macomb's career is that, like Dwight Eisenhower, he became a military hero without ever actually coming under enemy fire in his life. His son was Commodore William H. Macomb. He died while in office in Washington, D.C. and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery. Source: Wikipedia.
RedHouseCollection watermark is on the digital image only, not on the actual original print.
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