John McNeil Jr.

John McNeil Jr. (March 25, 1784 – February 23, 1850) was an officer in the United States Army. He distinguished himself in leading the bayonet charge which secured victory in the Battle of Chippewa. For his conduct in this battle, and in that of the Battle of Bridgewater, where he was severely wounded, he was successively brevetted as lieutenant colonel and colonel. In 1824 he received the brevet rank of brigadier general in recognition of his superior service as a brevet colonel for 10 years. He later received appointment as Surveyor of the Port of Boston, a post he held from 1830 to 1841. The husband of Elizabeth Andrews Pierce, son-in-law of Governor Benjamin Pierce, and brother-in-law of President Franklin Pierce, after retiring McNeil lived at the Pierce family home in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He died in Washington, D.C., on February 23, 1850, and was buried at Congressional Cemetery in Washington.