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New York City draft riots

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Federal troops firing at the oncoming mob.

The New York Draft Riots (July 13 to July 16, 1863; known at the time as Draft Week[1]) were a series of violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of discontent with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and volunteer troops to control the city. The rioters numbered in the thousands and were predominantly Irish.[2] Smaller scale riots erupted in other cities about the same time.

Initially intended to express anger at the draft, the protests degraded into civil disorder against African Americans. The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E. Wool stated on July 16, "Martial law ought to be proclaimed, but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it."[3] The military suppressed the mob using artillery and fixed bayonets, but not before numerous buildings were ransacked or destroyed, including many homes, the Tribune office, an orphanage for blacks, and even P.T. Barnum's museum of oddities.

Pretext

File:NYRiot.JPG
An illustration of rioters attacking a building on Lexington Avenue.

A military manpower shortage occurred in the Union during the war. Congress passed the first conscription act in U.S. history on March 3, 1863, authorizing the President to draft citizens between the ages of 18 and 35 into military service. Copperheads (Democrats opposed to the war) were dismayed by the news. Their main objection was to national service of any kind, but in terms of rhetoric, they attacked the provision allowing men drafted to pay either US$300 or supply a substitute as a "commutation fee" to procure exemption from service, which led to the derisive term "300 dollar man". In actuality, the draft was designed to spur voluntary enlistment, and relatively few men were formally drafted into service.[4]

However, in practice, men formed clubs whereby if one was drafted the others chipped in to pay the commutation fee. Regardless of the intent of the $300 provision—as a means of securing some much-needed funding for the war effort or sparing the sons of the rich from serving similar to draft dodging—public perception among the middle and lower classes was that the war had become "the rich man's war and the poor man's fight"[5]

The draft coincided with the efforts of Tammany Hall (the base of Democratic power in the city) to enroll Irish immigrants as citizens so they could vote in local elections. Consequently, many such immigrants suddenly discovered they had to fight for their new country. Of the 184 rioters whose place of birth could be identified, 117 were born in Ireland, 40 in the United States and 27 in other European countries.[citation needed]

Riots

The second drawing of numbers was held on July 13, 1863, but a furious mob soon attacked the assistant provost marshal's office. The rioters initially targeted draft offices and police stations but soon began to attack African Americans. The blacks became a scapegoat and the target of the rioters' anger; those who fell into the mob's hands were often beaten, tortured, and/or killed. Other targets included the office of the leading Republican newspaper, the New York Tribune.

Rioters attack federal troops

New York police forces proved unable to quell the riots; they were badly outnumbered and had to focus on minimizing losses and rescuing those whom they could. Control of the city was not re-established until the hasty arrival of federal troops, including the 152nd New York Volunteers, the 26th Michigan Volunteers, the 27th Indiana Volunteers and 7th Regiment New York State Militia from Frederick, MD, 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.

By July 15, the mob still controlled scattered portions of the city, but by the morning of July 16, there were several thousand Federal troops in the city, and the riot largely subsided.[3]

Aftermath

The exact death toll is unknown, but according to Cook (1974), at least 100 civilians were killed and at least 300 more injured; property damage was about 1.5 million US dollars.

On August 19, the draft was resumed. It was completed within 10 days without further incident, although far fewer men were actually drafted than had been feared: of the 750,000 selected for conscription nationwide, only 6% actually went into service.[4]

Fictional portrayals

File:Gangs of New York - ironclad.jpg
A warship fires on the city in the film Gangs of New York.

The Draft Riots are fictionally portrayed in the novels On Secret Service by John Jakes and Paradise Alley by Kevin Baker.

The short-lived 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn was set in an orphanage for black children that comes under siege during the Draft Riots.

In the steampunk novel The Difference Engine (1990) by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, readers are told that the riots (during an earlier Civil War finally won by the Confederate States) end in the creation of a Manhattan commune (compare with the Paris commune) led by Karl Marx.

The 2002 Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, set in the years prior to and including the Draft Riots, attempts to depict "the birth of Manhattan and the way the different waves of immigrants have shaped [New York City's] evolution".[6] The film includes an extended scene depicting the events. One notable scene shows Union Navy warships firing on the city. That is factually incorrect—no U.S. warships fired on the city.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Barnes 5
  2. ^ "The Riots". Harper's Weekly, volume vii, no 344. Sonofthesouth.net. pp. 382, 394. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
  3. ^ a b "Maj. Gen. John E. Wool Official Reports (OR) for the New York Draft Riots". Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War. Retrieved 2006-08-16.
  4. ^ a b David Donald, Civil War and Reconstruction (2002) 229
  5. ^ United States Congress, "Hearings Before and Special Reports Made by Committee on Armed Services of the House of Representatives", U.S. Government Printing Office, (Published 1975), available online, accessed 2007-01-27
  6. ^ "Gangs of New York Introduction". The Dream Page. Retrieved 2006-08-18.

References and further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Draft Riots.
  • Official Records of the American Civil War, volume xxvii, part ii (Washington, 1889)
  • David M. Barnes, The Draft Riots in New York, July, 1863: The Metropolitan Police, Their Services During Riot (1863) (available online)
  • Iver Bernstein, The New York City Draft Riots: Their Significance for American Society and Politics in the Age of the Civil War (1991)
  • Adrian Cook, The Armies of the Streets: The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 (1874)
  • James Barnet Fry, New York and the Conscription of 1863, (New York, 1885)
  • James Dabney McCabe, The Life and Public Services of Horatio Seymour (1868) (available online)
  • John Nicolay and John Hay, Lincoln, volume vii, (1890)
  • Barnet Schecter, The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America (2005)
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