Alexander Macomb, an American soldier, born in Detroit, April 13, 1782, died in Washington, June 25, 1841. He entered the army in 1799 as a cornet of cavalry, was retained in the service after the partial disbanding of the army in 1802, and at the commencement of the war with Great Britain in 1812 held the rank of lieutenant colonel of engineers and adjutant general of the army. Finding his position not likely to bring him into active service, he was transferred to the artillery, and in 1813, as colonel of the third regiment of artillery, distinguished himself at Niagara and Fort George. In January, 1814, he was promoted to be a brigadier general and placed in command of that part of the northern frontier bordering on Lake Champlain. At Plattsburgh on Sept. 11, 1814, being in command of about 1,500 regular troops and some detachments of militia, he sustained the attack of a greatly superior British force under Sir George Prevost, which, after the defeat of the British squadron on Lake Champlain on the same day, retreated to Canada. For his firmness and courage on this occasion, he was commissioned a major general, and received the thanks of congress and a gold medal.

He was subsequently retained in the service as colonel of engineers, and after the decease of Maj. Gen. Brown in 1835 succeeded to the office of commander-in-chief of the army. He wrote a "Treatise on Martial Law and Courts Martial, as practised in the United States " (1809). - His son, William H., born June 16, 1818, as lieutenant in the navy, captured the barrier forts at Canton, China, in 1856, commanded the Metacomet in the Paraguay expedition of 1859, and was in active service on the southern coast during the civil war. He became commander in 1862, captain in 1866, commodore in 1870, and died in Philadelphia, Aug. 12, 1872.