New York City draft riots

New York City draft riots
Part of American Civil War

A drawing from a British newspaper showing armed rioters clashing with U.S. soldiers in New York.
Date July 13, 1863 (1863-07-13) – July 16, 1863 (1863-07-16)
Location New York City, New York, U.S.
Result Riots ultimately suppressed
Casualties
Death(s) 120[1]
Injuries 2,000

The New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), known at the time as Draft Week,[2] were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.[3]

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln diverted several regiments of militia and volunteer troops from following up after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city. The rioters were overwhelmingly working-class men, primarily ethnic Irish, resenting particularly that wealthier men, who could afford to pay a $300 (equivalent to $5,766 in 2015) commutation fee to hire a substitute, were spared from the draft.[4]

Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests turned into a race riot, with white rioters, mainly but not exclusively Irish immigrants,[3] attacking blacks wherever they could find them. The official death toll was listed at 119.[5] The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool, commander of the Department of the East, said on July 16 that "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it."[6]

The military did not reach the city until after the first day of rioting, when mobs had already ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings, two Protestant churches, the homes of various abolitionists or sympathizers, many black homes, and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, which was burned to the ground.[7]

The demographics of the city changed as a result of the riot. So many blacks left Manhattan permanently (many moving to Brooklyn), that by 1865 their population fell below 10,000, the number in 1820.

Background

New York's economy was tied to the South; by 1822 nearly half of its exports were cotton shipments.[8] In addition, upstate textile mills processed cotton in manufacturing. New York had such strong business connections to the South that on January 7, 1861, Mayor Fernando Wood, a Democrat, called on the city's Board of Aldermen to "declare the city's independence from Albany and from Washington"; he said it "would have the whole and united support of the Southern States."[9] When the Union entered the war, New York City had many sympathizers with the South.[10]

The city was also a continuing destination of immigrants. Since the 1840s, most were from Ireland and Germany. In 1860, nearly 25 percent of the New York City population was German-born, and many did not yet speak English. During the 1840s and 1850s, journalists had published sensational accounts, directed at the working class, dramatizing the "evils" of interracial socializing, relationships, and marriages. Reformers joined the effort.[7] Newspapers carried derogatory portrayals of blacks and ridiculed "black aspirations for equal rights in voting, education, and employment." Pseudo-scientific lectures on phrenology were popular, although countered by doctors.[10] At the time, some areas of the city, such as Lower Manhattan, had mixed populations of residents.

The Democratic Party Tammany Hall political machine had been working to enroll immigrants as U.S. citizens so they could vote in local elections, and had strongly recruited Irish, most of whom already spoke English. In March 1863, with the war continuing, Congress passed the Enrollment Act to establish a draft for the first time, as more troops were needed. In New York City and other locations, new citizens learned they were expected to register for the draft to fight for their new country. Black men were excluded from the draft as they were largely not considered citizens, and wealthier white men could pay for substitutes. Free blacks and immigrants competed for low-wage jobs in the city.[7]

New York political offices, including the mayor, were held by Democrats, but the election of Abraham Lincoln as president had demonstrated the rise in Republican political power nationally. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the working class in New York, who feared that freed slaves would migrate to the city and add further competition to the labor market. There had already been tensions between black and white workers since the 1850s, particularly at the docks. In March 1863, white longshoremen had refused to work with blacks and rioted, attacking 200 black men. In this area of the city, there were a variety of interracial venues of brothels and bars, and neighborhoods were mixed in terms of residents. Men competed as hacks (carriage drivers), craftsmen, and in other jobs.[7]

Riots

Monday

John Alexander Kennedy, NYC police superintendent (1803–1873)

There were reports of rioting in Buffalo, New York, and certain other cities, but the first drawing of draft numbers — on July 11, 1863 — occurred peaceably in New York City. The second drawing was held on Monday, July 13, 1863, ten days after the Union victory at Gettysburg in southern Pennsylvania. At 10 a.m., a furious crowd of around 500, led by the volunteer firemen of Engine Company 33 (known as the "Black Joke"), attacked the assistant Ninth District provost marshal's office, at Third Avenue and 47th Street, where the draft was taking place.[11] The crowd threw large paving stones through windows, burst through the doors, and set the building ablaze.[12] When the fire department responded, rioters broke up their vehicles. Others killed horses that were pulling streetcars and smashed the cars. To prevent other parts of the city being notified of the riot, they cut telegraph lines.[11] Many of the rioters were Irish laborers who feared having to compete with emancipated slaves for jobs.[3]

Since the New York State Militia had been sent to assist Union troops in Pennsylvania, the New York City Police Department was the only force to try to suppress the riots.[12] The police superintendent, John A. Kennedy, arrived at the site on Monday to check on the situation. Although not in uniform, people in the mob recognized him and attacked him. Kennedy was left nearly unconscious, his face bruised and cut, his eye injured, his lips swollen, and his hand cut with a knife. He had been beaten to a mass of bruises and blood all over his body.[2]

Police drew their clubs and revolvers, and charged the crowd, but were overpowered.[13] The police forces were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots, but they kept the rioting out of Lower Manhattan below Union Square.[2] Immigrants and others in the "Bloody Sixth" Ward, around the seaport and Five Points area, refrained from involvement in the rioting.[14]

Bull's Head Hotel, depicted in 1830, was burned in the riot.
Colored Orphan Asylum was burned

The Bull's Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the mob, was burned. The mayor's residence on Fifth Avenue, the Eighth and Fifth District police stations, and other buildings were attacked and set on fire. Other targets included the office of the New York Times. The mob was turned back at the Times office by staff manning Gatling guns, including Times founder Henry Jarvis Raymond.[15] Fire engine companies responded, but some firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters, as they had also been drafted on Saturday.[13] Later in the afternoon, authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the Armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street. The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street.[11]

Rioters turned against black people as their scapegoats and the primary target of their anger. Many immigrants and other poor people viewed free black men as competition for scarce jobs, and worried about more slaves being emancipated and coming to New York for work.[7] The mob beat, tortured or killed numerous black people, including one man who was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones, then lynched, hanged from a tree and set alight.[11]

The Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue, a "symbol of white charity to blacks and of black upward mobility"[7] that then provided shelter for 233 children, was attacked by a mob at around 4 p.m. A mob of several thousand, including many women and children, looted the building of its food and supplies. However, the police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow the orphans to escape before the building burned down.[16] Throughout the areas of rioting, mobs attacked and killed at least 120 black people, and destroyed their known homes and businesses, such as James McCune Smith's pharmacy at 93 West Broadway, believed to be the first owned by a black man in the United States.[7]

Near the midtown docks, tensions brewing since the mid-1850s boiled over. As recently as March 1863, white employers had hired blacks, with whom Irish men refused to work, as longshoremen. An Irish mob attacked two hundred blacks who were working on the docks, while other rioters went into the streets in search of "all the negro porters, cartmen and laborers ..." to attempt to remove all evidence of a black and interracial social life from the area near the docks. White dockworkers attacked and destroyed brothels, dance halls, boarding houses, and tenements that catered to blacks. Mobs stripped the clothing off the white owners of these businesses.[7]

Tuesday

Heavy rain fell on Monday night, helping to abate the fires and sending rioters home, but the crowd returned the next day. Rioters burned down the home of Abby Gibbons, a prison reformer and the daughter of abolitionist Isaac Hopper. They also attacked white "amalgamationists", such as Ann Derrickson and Ann Martin, two white women who were married to black men, and Mary Burke, a white prostitute who catered to black men. The women escaped personal physical harm.[7][17]

Governor Horatio Seymour arrived on Tuesday and spoke at City Hall, where he attempted to assuage the crowd by proclaiming that the Conscription Act was unconstitutional. Gen. John E. Wool, commander of the Eastern District, brought approximately 800 soldiers and Marines in from forts in New York Harbor, West Point, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He also ordered the militias to return to New York.[13]

Wednesday and Thursday: order restored

The situation improved on Wednesday, when assistant provost-marshal-general Robert Nugent received word from his superior officer, Colonel James Barnet Fry, to postpone the draft. As this news appeared in newspapers, some rioters stayed home. But some of the militias began to return and used harsh measures against the remaining mobs.[13]

Order began to be restored on Thursday. The New York State Militia and some federal troops were returned to New York, including the 152nd New York Volunteers, the 26th Michigan Volunteers, the 27th Indiana Volunteers and the 7th Regiment New York State Militia from Frederick, Maryland, after a forced march. In addition, the governor sent in the 74th and 65th regiments of the New York State Militia, which had not been in federal service, and a section of the 20th Independent Battery, New York Volunteer Artillery from Fort Schuyler in Throgs Neck. The NYSM units were the first to arrive. By July 16, there were several thousand Federal troops in the city.[6]

A final confrontation occurred on Thursday evening near Gramercy Park. According to Adrian Cook's analysis in Armies of the Streets (1974), twelve people died on the last day of the riots in skirmishes between rioters, the police, and the Army, including one African American, two soldiers, a bystander, and two women.

The New York Times reported on Thursday that Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs gang members from Baltimore, as well as "Scuykill Rangers [sic] and other rowdies of Philadelphia," had come to New York during the unrest to participate in the riots alongside the Dead Rabbits and "Mackerelvillers". The Times editorialized that "the scoundrels cannot afford to miss this golden opportunity of indulging their brutal natures, and at the same time serving their colleagues the Copperheads and secesh [secessionist] sympathizers."[18]

Aftermath

The exact death toll during the New York Draft Riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson (2001), at least 120 people were killed. In all, eleven black men were lynched over five days. The riots forced hundreds of blacks to flee the city.[19] Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area.[7]

The most reliable estimates indicate at least 2,000 people were injured. Herbert Asbury, the author of the 1928 book Gangs of New York, upon which the 2002 film was based, puts the figure much higher, at 2,000 killed and 8,000 wounded,[20] but this figure is not widely accepted.[21] Total property damage was about $1–5 million ($19.2 million – $96.1 million, adjusted for inflation).[20][22] The city treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount.

The historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory".[22] Fifty buildings, including two Protestant churches and the Colored Orphan Asylum, were burned to the ground. During the riots, landlords, fearing that the mob would destroy their buildings, had driven blacks from their residences. As a result of the violence against blacks, hundreds left New York, including James McCune Smith, moving to Williamsburg, Brooklyn (still a separate city until 1898) and New Jersey.[7]

The white elite in New York organized to provide relief to black riot victims, helping them find new work and homes. The Union League Club and the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People provided nearly $40,000 to 2,500 victims of the riots. By 1865 the black population had dropped to under 10,000, the lowest since 1820. The white working-class riots had changed the demographics of the city, and whites exerted their control in the workplace; they became "unequivocally divided" from blacks.[7]

On August 19, the government resumed the draft in New York. It was completed within 10 days without further incident. Fewer men were drafted than had been feared by the working class: of the 750,000 selected nationwide for conscription, only about 45,000 went into service.[23]

While the rioting mainly involved the working class, middle and upper-class New Yorkers had split sentiments on the draft and use of federal power or martial law to enforce it. Many wealthy Democratic businessmen sought to have the draft declared unconstitutional. Tammany Democrats did not seek to have the draft declared unconstitutional, but helped pay the commutation fees for those who were drafted.[24] In December 1863, the Union League Club recruited over 2000 black soldiers, outfitted and trained them, honoring and sending men off with a parade through the city to the Hudson River docks in March 1864. A crowd of 100,000 watched the procession, which was led by police and members of the Union League Club.[7][25][26]

New York City's support for the Union cause continued, however grudgingly, and gradually Southern sympathies declined in the city. New York banks eventually financed the Civil War, and the state's industries were more productive than those of the entire Confederacy. By the end of the war, more than 450,000 soldiers, sailors, and militia had enlisted from New York State, which was the most populous state at the time. A total of 46,000 military men from New York State died during the war, more from disease than wounds.[9]

Order of battle

New York City Police Department

New York Metropolitan Police Department under the command of Superintendent John A. Kennedy.
Commissioners Thomas Coxon Acton and John G. Bergen took command when Kennedy was seriously injured by a mob during the early stages of the riots.[27]

Precinct Commander Location Strength Notes
1st Precinct Captain Jacob B. Warlow 29 Broad Street 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
2nd Precinct Captain Nathaniel R. Mills 49 Beekman Street 4 Sergeants, 60 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
3rd Precinct Captain James Greer 160 Chambers Street 3 Sergeants, 64 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
4th Precinct Captain James Bryan 9 Oak Street 4 Sergeants, 70 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
5th Precinct Captain Jeremiah Petty 49 Leonard Street 4 Sergeants, 61 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
6th Precinct Captain John Jourdan 9 Franklin Street 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
7th Precinct Captain William Jamieson 247 Madison Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
8th Precinct Captain Morris DeCamp 126 Wooster Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
9th Precinct Captain Jacob L. Sebring 94 Charles Street 4 Sergeants, 51 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
10th Precinct Captain Thaddeus C. Davis Essex Market 4 Sergeants, 62 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
11th Precinct Captain John I. Mount Union Market 4 Sergeants, 56 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
12th Precinct Captain Theron R. Bennett 126th Street (near Third Avenue) 5 Sergeants, 41 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
13th Precinct Captain Thomas Steers Attorney Street (at corner of Delancey Street) 4 Sergeants, 63 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
14th Precinct Captain John J. Williamson 53 Spring Street 4 Sergeants, 58 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
15th Precinct Captain Charles W. Caffery 220 Mercer Street 4 Sergeants, 69 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
16th Precinct Captain Henry Hedden 156 West 20th Street 4 Sergeants, 50 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
17th Precinct Captain Samuel Brower First Avenue (at the corner of Fifth Street) 4 Sergeants, 56 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
18th Precinct Captain John Cameron 22nd Street (near Second Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 74 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
19th Precinct Captain Galen T. Porter 59th Street (near Third Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 49 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
20th Precinct Captain George W. Walling 212 West 35th Street 4 Sergeants, 59 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
21st Precinct Sergeant Cornelius Burdick (acting Captain) 120 East 31st Street 4 Sergeants, 51 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
22nd Precinct Captain Johannes C. Slott 47th Street (between Eighth and Ninth Avenues) 4 Sergeants, 54 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
23rd Precinct Captain Henry Hutchings 86th Street (near Fourth Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 42 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
24th Precinct Captain James Todd New York waterfront 2 Sergeants and 20 Patrolmen Headquartered on Police Steamboat No. 1
25th Precinct Captain Theron Copeland 300 Mulberry Street 1 Sergeant, 38 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen Headquarters of the Broadway Squad.
26th Precinct Captain Thomas W. Thorne City Hall 1 Sergeant, 66 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
27th Precinct Captain John C. Helme 117 Cedar Street 4 Sergeants, 52 Patrolmen, and 3 Doormen
28th Precinct Captain John F. Dickson 550 Greenwich Street 4 Sergeants, 48 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
29th Precinct Captain Francis C. Speight 29th Street (near Fourth Avenue) 4 Sergeants, 82 Patrolmen, and 3 Doormen
30th Precinct Captain James Z. Bogart 86th Street and Bloomingdale Road 2 Sergeants, 19 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen
32nd Precinct Captain Alanson S. Wilson Tenth Avenue and 152nd Street 4 Sergeants, 35 Patrolmen, and 2 Doormen Mounted police

New York State Militia

1st Division: Major General Charles W. Sandford[28]

Unit Commander Complement Officers Other Ranks
65th Regiment Colonel William F. Berens 400
74th Regiment Colonel Watson A. Fox
20th Independent Battery Captain B. Franklin Ryer

Union Army

Department of the East: Major General John E. Wool[29] headquartered in New York[30]

Defenses of New York City: Brevet Brigadier General Harvey Brown,[31] Brown was in overall command of the military fortresses in New York city at the time and volunteered his services to General Wool. Wool instructed Brown to serve under the command of militia General Sandford to which Brown initially refused but eventually offered to serve in whatever capacity needed.[29] Brig. General Edward R. S. Canby[32]

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton authorized five regiments from Gettysburg, mostly federalized state militia and volunteer units from the Army of the Potomac, to reinforce the New York City Police Department. By the end of the riots, there were more than 4,000 soldiers garrisoned in New York City.

Unit Commander Complement Officers Notes
Invalid Corps One man missing; believed killed.
26th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Judson S. Farrar
5th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Cleveland Winslow
7th New York National Guard Regiment Colonel Marshall Lefferts 800 Recalled back to new York; on the way, one Private drowned. On July 16, 1863 during a skirmish with rioters, the regimental casualties were one Private received a buckshot in the back of the hand and two Privates had their coats cut by bullets[33]
8th New York National Guard Regiment Brigadier General Charles C. Dodge 150
9th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Edward E. Jardine {wounded} Regiment had been mustered out in May 1863 but 200 volunteered to serve again during the draft riots[34]
11th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Henry O'Brien (killed) Original regiment mustered out on June 2, 1862. Colonel O'Brien was in the process of recruiting at the time of the draft riots. The regiment was never brought back to strength and enlisted members were transferred to 17th Veteran Infantry.
14th New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment Colonel Thaddeus P. Mott All cavalry regiments in New York City were eventually put under the command of General Judson Kilpatrick who volunteered his services on July 17[35]
22nd New York National Guard Regiment Colonel Lloyd Aspinwall
47th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Jeremiah V. Meserole
152nd New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment Colonel Alonso Ferguson

Fiction

Theatre and film:

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Casualty counts vary by source. See *McPherson, James M. (1982), Ordeal By Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, p. 360, ISBN 978-0-394-52469-6.
  2. 1 2 3 Barnes, David M. (1863). The Draft Riots in New York, July 1863: The Metropolitan Police, Their Services During Riot. Baker & Godwin. pp. 5–6, 12.
  3. 1 2 3 Eric Foner (1988). Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, The New American Nation series, pp. 32-33, New York: Harper & Row; ISBN 0-06-093716-5 (updated ed. 2014, ISBN 978-0062354518).
  4. ↑ "The Draft in the Civil War", u-s-history.com; accessed August 28, 2014.
  5. ↑ "NY Draft Riots".
  6. 1 2 "Maj. Gen. John E. Wool Official Reports for the New York Draft Riots". Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War blogsite. Retrieved August 16, 2006.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Harris, Leslie M. (2003). In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863. University of Chicago Press. pp. 279–88. ISBN 0226317757.
  8. ↑ "King Cotton: Dramatic Growth of the Cotton Trade", New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War, New-York Historical Society, accessed May 12, 2012
  9. 1 2 Roberts, Sam (December 26, 2010). "New York Doesn't Care to Remember the Civil War". The New York Times. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  10. 1 2 New York Divided: Slavery and the Civil War Online Exhibit, New York Historical Society (November 17, 2006 to September 3, 2007, physical exhibit), accessed May 10, 2012
  11. 1 2 3 4 "The Mob in New York". The New York Times. July 14, 1863.
  12. 1 2 Schouler, James (1899). History of the United States of America, Under the Constitution. Dodd, Mead & Company. p. 418.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Rhodes, James Ford (1899). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. Macmillan. pp. 320–323.
  14. ↑ Bernstein, Iver (1990), pp. 24-25.
  15. ↑ "On This Day", New York Times; accessed March 17, 2016.
  16. ↑ History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850. Macmillan. pp. 320–23.
  17. ↑ Bernstein, Iver (1990), pp. 25-26
  18. ↑ "FACTS AND INCIDENTS OF THE RIOT.: THE MURDER OF COLORED PEOPLE IN THOMPSON AND SULLIVAN STREETS.". The New York Times. July 16, 1863. p. 1.
  19. ↑ McPherson, James M. (2001). Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. McGraw-Hill Education. p. 399. ISBN 0077430352.
  20. 1 2 Asbury, Herbert (1928). The Gangs of New York. Alfred A. Knopf. p. 169.
  21. ↑ Pete Hamill (December 15, 2002). "TRAMPLING CITY'S HISTORY 'Gangs' misses point of Five Points". New York Daily News.
  22. 1 2 Morison, Samuel Eliot (1972). The Oxford History of the American People: Volume Two: 1789 Through Reconstruction. Signet. p. 451. ISBN 0-451-62254-5.
  23. ↑ David Donald. Civil War and Reconstruction (2002), pg. 229
  24. ↑ Bernstein, Iver (1990), pp. 43-44
  25. ↑ Thomas L. Jones, "The Union League Club and New York's First Black Regiments in the Civil War", New York History (2006) 87#3, pp. 313-43.
  26. ↑ For the context see William Seraile, New York's Black Regiments During the Civil War (2001)
  27. ↑ Costello, Augustine E. Our Police Protectors: History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. New York: A.E. Costello, 1885, pp. 200-201.
  28. ↑ Sandford's Official Report
  29. 1 2 Wool's Official Report
  30. ↑ John Ellis Wool biography, bio19c.com; accessed April 26, 2014.
  31. ↑ Eicher, p. 146
  32. ↑ Brown was relieved of duty on July 16 and Canby succeeded him in command of the military post of New York City on July 17
  33. ↑ History of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, State of New York, During the War of the Rebellion...by William Swinton 1870
  34. ↑ Edward Jardine
  35. ↑ "1863 New York City Draft Riots", mrlincolnandnewyork.org; accessed April 26, 2014.

References

Further reading

External links

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