War Comes to Mount Welby

War Comes to Mount Welby. Oxon Cove Park.

“I should not be surprised if Government persists in their determination to quarrel with England that we should experience all the horrors of civil discord.” , Letter of Mary Welby De Butts to her brother, Richard Earl Welby, April 2, 1812

, In the letter above, Mary DeButts was right to worry. The quarrel between the United States and Great Britain erupted into the War of 18 12 only two month after she wrote to her brother. , This international power struggle had very personal consequences for Samuel and Mary DeButts. One of the war’s most important battles was fought within a few miles of Mount Welby. For part of the war they fled their home. And down on the Potomac, they got a close look at the might of the British Navy. , The causes of the war were complicated and reached from the American frontier across the Atlantic Ocean. , Causes of the War of 18 12 , In the North, some Americans hoped to invade British Canada as part of a war and perhaps annex Canadian provinces as new states of the Union., Settlers believed British agents were encouraging American Indians to attack forts and settlements. In a war with Britain, westerners saw a chance to drive British troops off the frontier and conquer Indian lands. , Locked in a war with France, Great Britain stopped American merchant ships and sometimes confiscated their cargoes. The British Navy also searched ships for British deserters. By 1810, the British were forcing about 1,000 seamen a year off U.S. ships and on to British vessels. The treatment of American ships and sailors outraged the people and leaders of the new nation. , The territories of Florida and Texas belonged to Britain’s ally, Spain. Southerners reasoned that these lands might be opened to expansion if Britain lost a war with the United States.