David B. Macomb

Rear Admiral David B. Macomb, USN (February 27, 1827 – January 27, 1911) was an admiral and engineering officer of the United States Navy. He served on blockade duty during the American Civil War, and was also a noted inventor.

Family background and early life Macomb's father, David Betton Macomb, came from a well-known family that had sided with the Crown during the American Revolution, but whose loyalties from the beginning of the 19th century had lain with the United States. His grandfather was William Macomb (a merchant at Detroit and member of the first parliament of Upper Canada), his grandfather's brother was Alexander Macomb the land speculator, and his father's first cousin was Maj. Gen. Alexander Macomb, the commanding general of the U. S. Army from 1828 to 1841.

David Betton (for clarity, referred to in this article as "David Sr.") Macomb was born at Detroit when it was still under British rule, and his mother would move the family to New York after his father's death in 1796. (By this time, uncle Alexander had made the family name notorious with his financial manipulations, and Sarah Macomb would choose to settle in Belleville, New Jersey, where she provided a home for at least three generations of her husband's family.) At some point during or shortly after the War of 1812, David Sr. made his way to Ohio, where his family name, and the heroism of his cousin, provided ideal introductions to local society.

Against the wishes of her family, in March 1816 David Sr. wed Mary Tiffin Worthington, daughter of Thomas Worthington, governor of Ohio. Although assisted by his wife's family and neighbors in Chillicothe, David Sr.'s business ventures repeatedly failed, and he struck out to make a new life in the Florida Territory in 1824, sending for his family the next year. Both Louis and Mary appear to have returned to Texas at the first opportunity. Oldest daughter Eleanor married, but died without surviving children in 1839; Both Mary and Tom, the oldest son, had surviving children at their deaths and may have living descendants. Louis is recorded as having died in either 1839 or 1889, in Houston.

Early naval career Macomb was appointed into the Navy as a third assistant engineer from Pennsylvania in January 1849, and was promoted to second assistant engineer in February 1851, on duty with the Coast Survey aboard .

Aboard Canonicus, he was present for the battle of Dutch Gap and the second clash at Deep Bottom in August 1864; later that year, Canonicus was ordered to Fort Fisher, North Carolina, and was there for the siege, reduction and surrender of that fort on January 15, 1865. Macomb's retirement home was in North Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he died January 27, 1911, in New York City.

Namesake In 1941, the destroyer was named in honor of Rear Admiral Macomb and his cousin, Commodore William H. Macomb (1818–1872). (They were simultaneously first and second cousins; William H. Macomb's mother Catherine and David Betton Macomb being brother and sister, while William H.'s father Alexander was David Betton Macomb's first cousin.)

Macomb Street in Tallahassee, Florida is named in his honor.