Quote:
Originally posted by Greenhat
NYC anti-draft riots are how they are historically described. Read about them and make your own decision.
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In March 1863 Congress passed an unpopular conscription act. Many state governors opposed the act as infringing on state's rights. The worst feature was the Commutation Fee, which effectively allowed the wealthy to buy their way out of the draft. Many poor whites, especially recent German and Irish immigrants, were also angry because blacks were not eligible for the draft.
In mid-July 1863, NYC prepared for its first draft lottery. The bulk of able-bodied troops were still in some dirty little Pennsylvania town - Gettysburg, I think they call it. Security for the city and the draft offices was provided by the NYPD and the so-called Invalid Corps of invalided soldiers from this and earlier wars.
Monday, July 13
The police were ill-prepared for the outbreak of violence. The Invalid Corps was even worse-prepared. Advancing from Central Park on the first large group of rioters, the force under Lt. Reed fired blanks to disperse the crowd. The crowd dispersed into the Invalid Corps, attacking them and seizing their weapons. At least one soldier was killed on the spot. Another was chased and beaten to death at the corner of 3rd Ave and 42nd St.
A force of about 44 police officers formed at 3rd and 43rd and advanced on the mob. They chased the mob toward 46th, where they thought another force of police was waiting as anvil to their hammer. Instead of more police, they found another mob coming up from 45th. The police were attacked with clubs, knives, tools, stones and guns. All but 6 were injured.
By this point, rioters clogged 3rd Ave for about 30 blocks. News of the riots spread throughout the city by word of mouth, and faster than the police could coordinate a response, as the rioters were knocking down telegraph poles. The rioters began moving toward the Armory on 2nd and 21st, where 35 police were ordered to "hold the Armory at all costs". They refused to fire on the crowd until people actually broke into the building, when one person was shot in the head. Learning there would be no reinforcement, the officers were forced to retreat, sneaking out the back of the building and shedding their uniforms to mingle into the crowds. The mob looted the Armory and advanced on the Mayor's residence. They then moved toward Mulberry Street police headquarters. By the late afternoon of rioting and looting, they were armed and drunk.
At police headquarters, 200 officers under Sgt. Daniel Carpenter formed a line at Bleecker Street. They were facing what they estimated was a mob of 5,000. Carpenter led his force toward Broadway, where they met the advancing crowd. He sent two 50-man companies down side streets to flank the mob. Once in position, they attacked, throwing the mob into disarray. Broadway was littered with dead and wounded.
But while the main body downtown was dispersed, reports were coming in of more mobs all over the city. Having had their fill of looted liquor and armed police, the mob began looking for blacks.
A mob surrounded the Colored Orphan Asylum on 5th Ave, between 43rd and 44th Sts. Superintendent William Davis gathered the children and snuck them out a back door just as the mob broke through the front. The mob looted the building, and set it on fire. They attacked the firemen who tried to put out the fire.
Meanwhile, as it got later, people from the mob dispersed on Broadway earlier grouped with a mob outside City Hall, and advanced on the Tribune Building. 150 officers confronted the mob in and around the Tribune Building. Carpenter's force of 200 advanced into City Hall Park and the combined force swept the park clear.
As the day drew to a close, MG John Wool, Commanding the Department of the East, began assembling forces. At 9:15 p.m., he had received the following orders from Gen. Halleck in Washington: "It is reported that a mob has destroyed the provost-marshal's office in Third avenue. It is expected that you will protect the provost-marshal in the execution of his duties. If necessary, call upon the mayor and Governor for aid, and use the forces under your command. You must see that the laws are executed." MG Wool had at his disposal mainly what was left of various NYS National Guard units not deployed in Pennsylvania, as well as naval militias under Rear Adm. Paulding at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the small garrisons on Governor's Island and at several forts. The Mayor appealed for additional forces from neighboring states and from West Point.
There was a command problem between Federal and State troops. Brevet BG Harvey Brown, commander of US troops in most of the forts around the city, resisted being placed under the command of MG C. W. Sandford, commanding 1st Division, NYS National Guard. Gen. Brown was relieved, and Col. Robert Nugent took charge of the regulars.
A storm came in that night, dispersing the crowds indoors. Some 15-20 police officers were dead, and an unknown number of rioters.
Tuesday, July 14
Around 8 a.m., Gen. Brown begged for his job back, agreeing to work for the National Guard general, and Gen. Wool returned him to command of the regulars (he would eventually be relieved again on the 17th). Expecting the worst, Gen. Wool ordered his commands "immediately to attack and stop those who have commenced their infernal rascality in Yorkville and Harlem."
That morning, several hundred police and special police assembled at Mulberry Street, joined by about 700 regulars, militiamen and marines. Reports poured in of mobs assembling to the north, from the Hudson to the East River. A 250-man police force under Sgt. Carpenter moved up 2nd and 3rd Avenues, meeting the mob without major incident at 32th. As they moved further north, the hail of debris from rooftops increased, and the police began to disperse. Carpenter rallied them, and the police stormed the houses and clear the rooftops. After an hour-long fight, the police were victorious.
A block and a half to the north, Col. O'Brien of the 11th New York formed his troops in a line securing the avenues of approach, with two howitzers in the middle of Third Avenue. The scattered remnants of the mob, seeing the bodies scattered on the street and the soldiers blocking their way, rallied and began throwing stones and bricks at the soldiers. O'Brien ordered his men to fire. Bodies fell everywhere from rifle and artillery fire. The mob fled in terror, trampling each other. It took five minutes to empty the avenue.
Col. O'Brien and his force returned downtown, where he requested to be relieved. Of poor Irish stock himself, he was traumatized by what he had just done. He returned home to Brooklyn, where a mob beat him to death and desecrated his body.
Meanwhile that day, a company of 150 soldiers under a Lt. Wood, moving in the Bowery district, encountered a mob of 2,000 at Pitt Street. The mob started throwing stones at the soldiers. Wood ordered his men to open fire. The mob dispersed, leaving more dead and wounded.
Two separate fights took place that day at a wire factory on 30th, where a stockpile of weapons was located. More of the mob managed to arm themselves. The police retook the building in a room-by-room fight, and took what was left of the weapons back to police headquarters. The mob pursued, throwing bricks and stones as they chased, and an army rearguard eventually turned and let loose a volley at point-blank, dispersing the mob.
At police headquarters, reports had been pouring in from all over the city of rioters, numbering in the hundreds and thousands.
Downtown, business leaders ordered businesses closed until order was restored. The Harbor Police ferried in troops from Riker's and Governor's Islands. The 10th National Zouaves, the Invalid Corps and locals guarded government buildings. Some 400 additional special police were sworn in. The fire department continued to fight fires.
Blacks fled the city. Many, especially the old and the very young, did not escape the mobs and were beaten to death. Black neighborhoods went up in flames. James Costello, a black shoemaker, shot back at a mob chasing him, killing one. The rest captured and lynched him outside his home at 97 West 33rd Street. They then attacked his wife and children, who managed to escape. Costello was not the first, and would be far from the last, to be lynched. While the main riots were still in New York proper below Central Park, anti-black riots sprang up everywhere.
Armed rioters attacked Horace Greeley's house and nearby residences and buildings. Police detachments attacked them, killing many, as police sharpshooters targeted those with rifles (and many who were just easier targets). Fights raged, and Greeley's house and others were looted. Soldiers arrived and fired a volley into the intermingled crowd, wounding, among others, 3 police officers.
As darkness approached, looters attacked the Brooks Brothers store and the Tribune building. The nearby offices of the New York Times escaped unharmed.
Archbishop Hughes pleaded with the city's Irish to go home, to little avail. At the same time, he expressed support for the rioters and denounced the war.
Meanwhile, the mob in places on the West Side began getting organized, stringing up barricades on major avenues. A series of engagements began as police and soldiers drove the mobs back from successive barricades. As the last barricade was taken, the mob fled. Smaller fights and acts of looting and burning continued into the night. A mob attempted unsuccessfully to burn the Harlem Bridge. By midnight, most of the city was quiet.
Wednesday, July 15
More to come, if anyone's interested.
Maybe I will split the thread to let this get back to Reagan's legacy.