20
W. L. Ormsby, sc.
ALEXANDER MACOMB.
Major-General Alexander Macomb, the son of a respectable fur merchant, was born at Detroit, April 3d, 1782. His father removed to New York when he was an infant, and at the age of eight years placed him at school at Newark, New Jersey, under the charge of Dr. Ogden, a gentleman of distinguished talents and high literary attainments. In 1798, a time of great excitement, as invasion by a French army was soon expected, Macomb, although quite a youth, was elected into a corps called the “New York Rangers;” Congress having passed a law receiving volunteers for the defence of the country. In 1799, Macomb obtained a cornetcy, and General North, then adjutant-general of the northern army, who had watched for some time the soldier-like conduct of our hero, received him into his staff as deputy adjutant-general. Macomb, from his intelligence and attention to his profession, soon became the favorite of the accomplished North, and the pet of his senior officers. He was ambitious of distinction, without ostentation, and persevering even to fatigue.
The thick and dark clouds which hung over the country had passed away, the prospect of war had now vanished, the troops were generally disbanded and many of the officers retired to their homes, but our young officer begged to be retained, and was accordingly commissioned as a second lieutenant of dragoons, and dispatched to Philadelphia on the recruiting service; but this service being more form than necessity, gave Lieutenant Macomb an opportunity to associate with the best informed men, and access to the extensive libraries in that city, advantages which he was anxious to improve. When he had raised the number of recruits required, he was ordered to join General Wilkinson on the western frontiers, to visit the Cherokee country, to aid in making a treaty with that nation, a mission which lasted a year. The corps to which Macomb belonged was soon after disbanded, and a corps of engineers formed, to which he was afterwards attached as first-lieutenant, and sent to West Point.
During his residence at West Point, Lieutenant Macomb compiled a treatise upon martial law, and the practice of courts-martial, now the standard work upon courts-martial, for the army of the United States. In 1805, Macomb was sent to superintend the fortifications, which, by an act of Congress, were ordered to be commenced on the frontiers, and promoted to the rank of captain in the engineer corps. In 1808, he was promoted to the rank of major, still acting as superintendent of fortifications. At the breaking out of the war in 1812, he solicited a command in an artillery corps, then about to be raised, which was granted him, and a commission as colonel of the third regiment, dated July 6th, 1812. The regiment was to consist of twenty companies of one hundred and eighteen each. He assisted in raising the numbers required, and in November of that year he marched to Sacket’s Harbor with his troops, where he spent the winter, having command of the whole of the lake frontier. In January, 1814, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, and appointed to a command on the east side of Lake Champlain; from which time to the climax of his fame at the defence of Plattsburgh, he was constantly on the alert, in the discharge of his duties. During the summer of 1814, Sir George Prevost, governor-general of Canada, had greatly augmented his forces, by detachments of picked men from the army which had fought in Spain and Portugal, under the Duke of Wellington, and which, of course, from their long and tried military service, were among the best troops in the world; with these it was intended to strike a decisive blow on our frontier, and bring us to terms at once. In this, however, Sir George was mistaken, as the following extract from Brigadier-General Macomb to the Secretary of War will prove, dated Plattsburgh, September 15, 1814:—
“The governor-general of the Canadas, Sir George Prevost, having collected all the disposable force of Lower Canada, with a view of conquering the country as far as Ticonderoga, entered the territory of the United States on the 1st of the month, and occupied the village of Champlain—there avowed his intentions, and issued orders and proclamations, tending to dissuade the people from their allegiance, and inviting them to furnish his army with provisions. He immediately began to impress the wagons and teams in the vicinity, and loaded them with his baggage and stores, indicating preparations for an attack on this place. My fine brigade was broken up to form a division ordered to the westward, which consequently left me in the command of a garrison of convalescents and the recruits of the new regiments—all in the greatest confusion, as well as the ordnance and stores, and the works in no state of defence.
“To create an emulation and zeal among the officers and men, in completing the works, I divided them into detachments, and placed them near the several forts—declaring, in orders, that each detachment was the garrison of its own work, and bound to defend it to the last extremity. The enemy advanced cautiously, and by short marches, and our soldiers worked day and night; so that, by the time he made his appearance before the place, we were prepared to receive him. Finding, on examining the returns of the garrison, that our force did not exceed fifteen hundred men for duty, and well-informed that the enemy had as many thousand, I called on General Mooers, of the New York militia, and arranged with him plans for bringing forth the militia en masse.