William McRee, USMA 1805

Born December 13, 1787 in Wilmington, NC.

Died May 15, 1833 at Saint Louis, MO of the Asiatic cholers.

He was a lifelong bachelor.

Cullum's Register has a three page biography but contains only one phrase about his trip abroad with Thayer: "After an absence of nearly two years in Europe, to examine the fortifications and military establishments of France and the Netherlands . . . ". I know of no documentation about them going to the Netherlands. The biography does contain a good deal of information about the War of 1812 and mentions E. D. Wood several times.

Documents:

• 1808, February 19. Jefferson recommends promotion to Captain to the Senate.

Books used by McRee:

Duane, William [LTC US Army]  The American Military Library; or Compendium of Modern Tactics, . . . Philadelphia, 1809.  Clean copy. Bookplate: "Presented to Hobart College Library by Mrs. J. W. Swift, Geneva N.Y., A.D. 1890." The title page bears McRee's signature. WPT UG490 .M86.

Colonel William McRee of United States Engineer Corps, (born 1787--died 1833), is the subject of a memoir written and published in Wilmington; by it our attention is called to a worthy and almost forgotten son, whose military talents, according to the testimony of Mr. Calhoun, General Scott and others, was of the highest order.

His father was Collector of Customs and an officer in the Revolutionary War, and died in 1801. He was born in 1787; educated at West Point, in 1803, and was made, in 1807, a Captain of Engineers, and promoted to Major in 1812. In the war of 1812 he was engaged on our Northern borders, under Scott, Brown, Gaines and others, and was particularly distinguished in the battles of Lunday's Lane, and Fort Erie, and won from General Scott the eulogium, that in his opinion and perhaps in the opinion of the whole army, that he combined more genius with high courage than any officer in the war of 1812. Shortly after the battle of Fort Erie, he was promoted to Colonel by brevet.

In 1815 he was sent to Europe for the purpose of examining the military schools and fortifications--and on his return made an able report. In 1819, indignant that a foreigner--General Bernard--should be appointed in the Engineer Corps, he resigned. He died of cholera in May, 1833, and was buried at St. Louis, Missouri. His name is preserved on a beautiful fort at Pensacola.