New York City draft riots

New York's economy was tied to the South; by 1822, nearly half of its exports were cotton shipments. 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." 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 speak English. During the 1840s and 1850s, journalists had published sensational accounts, directed at the white working class, dramatizing the evils of interracial socializing, relationships, and marriages. Reformers joined the effort. The Democratic Party's 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. 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. New York political offices, including the mayor, were historically held by Democrats before the war, but the election of Abraham Lincoln as president had demonstrated the rise in Republican political power nationally. Newly elected New York City Republican Mayor George Opdyke was mired in profiteering scandals in the months leading up to the riots. The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the white 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, with free black people and white immigrants competing for low-wage jobs in the city. In March 1863, white longshoremen refused to work with black laborers and rioted, attacking 200 black men. ==Riots==

Monday , NYC police superintendent from 1860 to 1870 There were reports of rioting in Buffalo and some other cities, but the first drawing of draft numbers—on Saturday, July 11—occurred peaceably in Manhattan. The second drawing was held on Monday, July 13, ten days after the Union victory at Gettysburg. At 10:00AM, 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. The crowd threw large paving stones through windows, burst through the doors, and set the building ablaze. 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, rioters cut telegraph lines. The police were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots, but they kept the rioting out of Lower Manhattan below Union Square. The 19th Company/1st Battalion US Army Invalid Corps which was part of the Provost Guard tried to disperse the mob with a volley of gunfire but were overwhelmed and suffered over 14 injured with 1 soldier missing (believed killed). '' building . during the New York City draft riots in 1863 The Bull's Head hotel on 44th Street, which refused to provide alcohol to the rioters, was burned. The mayor's residence on Fifth Avenue was spared by words of Judge George Gardner Barnard, and the crowd of about 500 turned to another location of pillage. 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. Fire engine companies responded, but some firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters because they had also been drafted on Saturday. The New York Tribune was attacked, being looted and burned; not until police arrived and extinguished the flames was the crowd dispersed. children, was attacked by a mob at around 4 pm. 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. 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. Governor Horatio Seymour arrived on Tuesday and spoke at City Hall, where he attempted to assuage the crowd by proclaiming that the Enrollment Act was unconstitutional. General 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 ordered the militias to return to New York. Thursday Order began to be restored on July 16. 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 Throggs Neck. The New York State Militia units were the first to arrive. There were several thousand militia and Federal troops in the city. The New York Times reported on Thursday that Plug Uglies and Blood Tubs gang members from Baltimore, as well as "Scuykill Rangers 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." ==Aftermath==

The exact death toll during the New York draft riots is unknown, but according to historian James M. McPherson, 119 or 120 people were killed, although other estimates list the death toll as high as 1,200. Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area: Among the murdered black people was the seven-year-old Bermudian nephew, Joseph Reed, of Robert John Simmons of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, whose account of fighting in South Carolina, written on the approach to Fort Wagner July 18, 1863, was to be published in the New York Tribune on December 23, 1863 (Simmons having died in August of wounds received in the attack on Fort Wagner). 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, a number that some dispute. Total property damage was about $1–5 million (equivalent to $ – $ in ). The city treasury later indemnified one-quarter of the amount. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the riots were "equivalent to a Confederate victory". While the rioting mainly involved the white 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 they helped pay the commutation fees for those who were drafted. In December 1863, the Union League Club recruited more than 2,000 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. New York'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—as was typical during the war. ==Order of battle==

New York Metropolitan 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. Of the NYPD Officers there were four fatalities: one was killed and three died of injuries New York State Militia 1st Division: Major General Charles W. Sandford Unorganized Militia: Union army Department of the East: Major General John E. Wool headquartered in New York Defenses of New York City: Brevet Brigadier General Harvey Brown, Brig. General Edward R. S. Canby • Artillery: Captain Henry F. Putnam, 12th United States Infantry Regiment. • Provost marshals tasked with overseeing the initial enforcement of the draft: • Provost Marshal General U.S.A.: Colonel James Fry • Provost Marshal General New York City: Colonel Robert Nugent (During the first day of rioting on July 13, 1863, in command of the Invalid Corps: 1st Battalion) 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 the troubled area. ==In popular culture==

Fiction • Wilderness: A Tale of the Civil War (1961) by Robert Penn Warren • The Banished Children of Eve, A Novel of Civil War New York (1995) by Peter Quinn • My Notorious Life: A Novel (2014) by Kate Manning • On Secret Service (2000) by John Jakes • Paradise Alley (2003) by Kevin Baker • New York: the Novel (2009) by Edward Rutherfurd • Grant Comes East (2004) by Newt Gingrich • Last Descendants (2016) by Matthew J. Kirby • Riot (2009) by Walter Dean Myers • A Wish After Midnight (2008) by Zetta Elliott, speculative fiction set in Brooklyn alternating between the early 21st century and 1863. • Libertie (2021) by Kaitlyn Greenidge • Moon and the Mars (2021) by Kia Corthron • Booth (2021) by Karen Joy Fowler • How to Dodge a Cannonball (2025) by Dennard Dayle Television, theatre and film • The short-lived 1968 Broadway musical Maggie Flynn was set in the Tobin Orphanage for black children (modeled on the Colored Orphan Asylum). • Gangs of New York (2002), a film directed by Martin Scorsese, includes a fictionalized portrayal of the New York Draft Riots in its finale. • Paradise Square (2018), a musical that had its Broadway debut in 2022, depicts events that led up to and included the New York Draft Riots. • Copper (2012), a BBC America television series about the Five Points in New York City in 1864-1865, has flashbacks to the riots and the lynchings which took place in the area. ==See also==