Westward Cork Migration by Sail 1815-1860 by John Sutton

PART II EMIGRANT PERSPECTIVE

The new Cumberland Road would replace the wagon and foot paths of the Braddock Road for travel between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers, following roughly the same alignment until just east of Uniontown, Pennsylvania. From there, where the Braddock Road turned north towards Pittsburgh, the new National Road/Cumberland Road continued west to Wheeling Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River. The Road would reach Wheeling on 1 August 1818. Early 19 th century roads were primitive, and the sturdier Cumberland Road connection between the Potomac and Ohio watersheds would prove a vital improvement for much of the migration from the eastern US coast. 1812. The War of 1812 During the wars between France and Great Britain the US maintained its neutrality. Neither France nor Britain appreciated American vessels trading with the enemy and both intercepted American ships. The British not only seized the American vessels but also impressed thousands of captured sailors into service on their chronically depleted naval ships. These events and some US expectation of full control of the St Lawrence River and territorial gains in Upper and Lower Canada led the US to declare war on Britain in 1812. While Great Britain was fatigued by the waging of costly wars, she was not averse to regaining American lands lost and reasserting her authority. British Army and Navy sought control of the Great Lakes, the Hudson River Valley leading to New York, and Chesapeake Bay. US incursions into Upper and Lower Canada were rebuffed by ineptitude of the attackers and firm resistance from Canadian citizens who, with help of Native Indians, captured Detroit and made temporary territorial gains in the Old Northwest Territory. The war spawned the emergence of a new generation of competent US naval commanders and army generals, and the fledgling nation gained long term prestige through their naval dominance and battlefield skill on and around the Great Lakes, Lake Champlain and the Hudson Valley. While the British sailed into Chesapeake Bay and punitively burned Washington, they were unable to capture Baltimore’s Fort McHenry or the important commercial wheat-trading and shipbuilding Port of Baltimore. The majority historical opinion is that the War of 1812 had no clear winner. However, there is agreement that, ignoring the main adversaries, the American Indians were major losers. The Shawnee in the Old Northwest Territory and Creeks in the Southeast (Alabama Territory), who allied with the British during the War, suffered major defeats, with major losses of both leaders and lands, resulting in a long-term reduction of Native Indian threats to migrants in those areas. The major strategy on both sides in the conflict was commercial warfare focusing on the deprivation of export trade income by neutralizing the enemy merchant navies. The US was familiar with this form of warfare. "Even before the war, the American merchant fleet had suffered casualties at the hands of certain European powers. According to one estimate, by 1810 Britain had seized nearly 1,000 American ships and France 500, while a further 300 had fallen to the Danes, Spaniards and Dutch". (Kert, 1998, 3) The US, which had only a small Navy, but a large and superior merchant marine fleet, issued "letters-of-marque" charging hundreds of privateers to capture and destroy British vessels wherever they might be found. Many of these ships were built in Chesapeake Bay of a "Baltimore Clipper" design with deep hulls, large sail-spread, and fore-and-aft rig, suited for speed and maneuverability even in light winds. British losses alone amounted to 1,509 merchant ships during the War and Lloyd's List presented a report to Parliament in December 1814 of 1,175 ships lost as of October 1814 (Green, 2019).