Talk:Alexander Macomb (general)

citations missing
I was WP:BOLD and removed the citations missing as it was tagged from  and the article has been improved and has several citations. If anyone spots something specific, please tag it as citation needed so it can be addressed. Thx. &mdash; MrDolomite • Talk 14:02, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Infobox question
I don't do infoboxes on members of the General Staff, so I don't really know how this works. Macomb had many ranks and a number of postings, and I don't know if they should be shown or not. I defer to those military mavens who understand the concepts better than I. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 17:57, 31 July 2008 (UTC) Stan
 * Read the link I posted on your talk page. It links to the Military person template that explains all the headings and what should be listed on them. Asher196 (talk) 18:51, 31 July 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 19:01, 31 July 2008 (UTC) Stan

Pronunciation of Macomb
The alleged pronunciation (May like the month) is not the way it is said in Ma (like your mother) comb County, Michigan. The second syllable is accented, but is pronounced like the "comb" you use in your hair, not "come" as in a direction to 'come here.' I've lived there for 46 years, and have NEVER heard it pronounced that way. Maybe that's what they say in New York? 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 22:47, 3 August 2008 (UTC) Stan
 * I can attest to the pronunciation provided by 7&amp;6=thirteen. I live just north of there, and it's always pronounced "Muh Comb". Asher196 (talk) 22:54, 3 August 2008 (UTC)
 * I think Ash has it exactly right, FWIW. The only strange (mis)pronunciation I've ever heard that ever approximated the one in the first paragraph of the article was a few years back by an automated telephone voice that was giving me a telephone number. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 23:17, 3 August 2008 (UTC) Stan

Reference format problem. HELP
Am having problem with an unclosed footnote. Can't seem to find the solution. HELP. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 14:57, 20 August 2008 (UTC) Stan
 * Still having some form problems. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 15:38, 20 August 2008 (UTC) Stan
 * Fixed. However, some might not be happy with the way I did Footnote 10. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 22:06, 20 August 2008 (UTC) Stan

Order of this article
I like the appearance of this article the way it is presently ordered -- visually it works very nicely. OTOH, the Congressional Gold Medal preceded his being promoted to Commanding General. In that sense, a chronological presentation might be better. Any thoughts? 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 17:03, 5 September 2008 (UTC) Stan

Somebody deleted that wonderful portrait
Sadly, the info box is looking kind of empty. They did something similar to the Battle of Plattsburgh. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 15:57, 7 September 2008 (UTC) Stan
 * That was cured in this article. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 17:13, 7 September 2008 (UTC) Stan

Plattsburgh or Plattsburg
I changed all of the to the former to conform to the Battle of Plattsburgh article, but left one that seems to be a quotation from the Congressional resolution in the latter spelling. Can somebody check on that? Thanks. 7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 17:13, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

Indeed sic Plattsburg not Plattsburgh in the resolution. See The Public Statues at Large of the United States of America User: mlloyd57 —Preceding undated comment added 17:14, 24 December 2010 (UTC).

Newark Academy
Someone in the interest of linking to the Article "Newark, New Jersey" put "a Newark, New Jersey academy" but Macomb attended Newark Academy in Livingston, NJ. Besides, I think it more likely a person reading this will want to see what Newark Academy is about rather than wondering what Newark New Jersey is. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlloyd57 (talk • contribs) 03:54, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Detroit, Michigan
In order to link to the article for Detroit, the text stated Detroit, Michigan. That added problems, and so we now had "Born in Detroit, Michigan, at the time was part of British North America, Macomb was the son of Alexander Macomb and Mary Catherine Navarre" which is difficult to read. That is, we have a comma between the city and the state (which didn't yet exist), a comma between Michigan and Macomb as an appositive and parenthetical commas between at the time...North America. I changed to Detroit because Detroit is technically correct and Detroit, Michigan is the WP article. I added parentheses to avoid the confusion between the aside and the other commas. Perhaps we can do without the parenthetical altogether now? Mlloyd57 (talk) 04:01, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
 * You are correct of course about the anachronism. Maybe it would he better to say he was born in the environs of (or near or at) Fort Detroit or Detroit, which was then part of British North America? Detroit did exist and was founded in 1701, long before Macomb was born, but it was in BNA and not Michigan or the United States at the time.  7&amp;6=thirteen (talk) 14:02, 4 January 2011 (UTC) Stan

Not just the environs of Detroit or near Detroit certainly but at Detroit, since he was born at Government House, Detroit which at the time belonged to his uncle William Macomb, and the former home of Mary Anne Navarre, my several greats aunt. Please see http://www.mlloyd.org/gen/macomb/text/cass-hse.htm. Mlloyd57 (talk) 02:07, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

See if my change suites? Part of my objection to most of the above is having too many words, clauses etc. appear between the adjective "born" and its antecedent "Macomb." Mlloyd57 (talk) 02:13, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

External links modified
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Pronunciation of Macomb to rhyme with room
It appears that Macomb pronounced his own name Mah-koom (/məˈkum/) to rhyme with "room." From :

It was on this occasion, or perhaps at a picnic, that General Macomb, after being busily engaged in decorating the rooms with evergreens, in his ready way gave the impromptu distich:
 * Honor to Farley, glory to Macomb,
 * One cut the bushes, the other swept the room.

I haven't found any other citation on how he pronounced it. TuckerResearch (talk) 18:23, 30 June 2020 (UTC)


 * Of course, I am assuming that "room" was pronounced as it is now.... TuckerResearch (talk) 18:25, 30 June 2020 (UTC)

Article issues

 * The "Further reading" section has grown to fourteen entries that appear to exceed a reasonable number of publications. If some of these can be used for further article expansion they can be listed on the talk page facilitating some trimming.
 * The "External links" section has an additional ten entries that far exceeds what we normally consider acceptable for even a C-class article. See WP:ELPOINTS #3. -- Otr500 (talk) 11:01, 22 June 2021 (UTC)
 * The lead section also needs to be expanded to follow what is normally expected in a B-class article. --  Otr500 (talk) 11:11, 22 June 2021 (UTC)