Phil Lord wrote:
> It is hard to say without seeing these items whether it is worth your
> trouble to pass them along, but I am a;lways gald for anything relating to
> the topic. The search I am focusing on now is traffic from Schenectady
> on the inland waterways to Oswego, after 1790 and before 1820. The
> least collected part of that period is after 1800 and before 1815. I know
> there must have been shipping for the war effort, and I have a few
> fragments of data, but I have not yet had the time to push the collection in
> this area. Anything you wish to share would be great.

A relatively small question, but one that has been nagging me for some time.  We know
that immediately after the war, by the fall of 1815, on both sides of Lake Ontario
the military were collaborating with local businessmen in promoting steamboats. In
both cases, reliable transport seems to have been a factor in military participation.

The biographies of the Molsons, who controlled the steamboats between Quebec and
Montreal, refer to significant revenues for moving troops to Upper Canada.

To what extent were steamboats on the Hudson River and Lake Champlain a factor in the
moving of military goods and personal to the American frontier during the war? I know
Fulton was working on the defences of New York during this period, but I'm more
curious about good, "new fangled" transport.

Given that Dick started this thread, I wonder if you're aware of his articles on "
The Forwarding Business in Oswego, 1800-1820". Part I was in _Inland Seas_ v. 41, no.
2 (Summer 1985).

Walter Lewis
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