USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, Vol. II > Part 22
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818
HISTORY OF THE
In the mean time, the army was rapidly being de- pleted by the expiration of the terms of enlistment of the two years', twelve months', and nine months' regi- ments. Some sixty-five thousand men would leave the service in the spring and summer of 1863, and there. was little probability that their places would be sup- plied by volunteers, even under the temptation of the enormous bounties offered. To meet this exigeney, on the 3d of March, 1863, Congress passed an enrolment and conscription act, authorizing the President to re- cruit the army when necessary, by drafting from the able-bodied citizens between the ages of twenty and forty-five. The drafted men were allowed to furnish substitutes, or to pay $300, in consideration of which the government undertook to procure them.
Although conscription had been practised from the very beginning by the South, this measure was de- nounced by a large class in the North, as violent and unconstitutional, and a virulent spirit of opposition was manifested, especially among those opposed to the war. A general enrolment nevertheless was made, and early in May a draft of three hundred thousand men was ordered to take place in each district, as soon as the enrolment therein was completed, and the quota as- signed. Just at this juncture General Lee invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania, with the hope of transfer- ring the seat of war to the north of the Potomac, and relieving the Shenandoah Valley of the Federal troops. The Confederates ravaged Southern Pennsylvania, and advanced to within a few miles of Harrisburg, and their commander issued manifestoes from that place and York. The greatest consternation prevailed. The
-
819
CITY OF NEW YORK.
governor of Pennsylvania called the troops of the State to arms, and entreated assistance from the neigh- boring States. President Lincoln made a requisition on Governor Seymour for twenty thousand militia, to aid in repelling the invasion ; to which the latter re- sponded by directing General Sandford, the commander of the New York City militia, to send every available regiment at his disposal to the seat of war for thirty days' service, and giving similar orders to the militia of the neighboring cities. The troops were immediately directed to hold themselves in readiness, and on the fol- lowing day, the 16th of June, General Sandford issued a general order directing the regiments of the First Division of the New York State Militia, comprising all those belonging in New York City, to repair forthwith to Harrisburg. The Seventh Regiment at once led the way, followed within a few days by nearly all the rest of the city militia, as well as those of Brooklyn.# The result is well known : the tide of invasion was driven back, and the national holiday was gladdened by the news of the victory of Gettysburg and the capture of Vicksburg.
* Regiments.
Commanders.
Left New York. No. of Men.
Fourth
Col. Daniel W. Teller
June 20
500
Fifth .
=
Louis Burger .
19
828
Sixth
=
Joel W. Mason
22
656
Seventh .
" Marshall Lefferts
16
850
Eighth
J. M. Varian
18
371
Eleventh
J. Maidhoff
4:
18
762
Twelfth
Wm. G. Ward
=
19
684
Twenty-second
Lloyd Aspinwall
19
568
Thirty-seventh
Chas. Roome .
19
693
Fifty-fifth
" Eugene Le Gal
66
2.1
350
Sixty-ninth.
James Bagley
=
22
600
Seventy-First
B L. Trafford
..
18
737
Eighty-fourth .
F. A. Conkling
July
3
480
8,079
.
820
HISTORY OF THE
This joy was soon overshadowed by the most humili- ating event ever recorded in the annals of New York. The victories which rejoiced the hearts of the loyal citizens exasperated the disloyal part of the population, and urged them to desperate measures. The draft was to commence on the 11th of July, and the opportunity was seized to instigate an outbreak which might turn the scale anew. New York was in a most defenceless condition, being stripped of troops and devoid of any means of protection. Mayor Opdyke had remonstrated with Governor Seymour against thus draining the city of the militia on the eve of the draft, but the governor had replied that the orders of his superiors left him no discretion in the matter ; and, moreover, that he was confident that the city would be safe under the protec- tion of the police. Not sharing this security, the mayor ineffectually urged the governor to authorize the raising of twenty or thirty new regiments, in order to strengthen the militia force. Failing in this, he next asked the government to postpone the draft until the return of the troops from their thirty days' service ; but. this was not deemed advisable, and the draft was com- meneed under the direction of Colonel Nugent, the pro- vost-marshal, on Saturday, the 11th of July, on the corner of Forty-sixth street and Third Avenue, in the ninth congressional district. A large crowd assembled, but the drafting proceeded quietly, amidst the apparent good-humor of the spectators, and it was generally sup- posed that the apprehended danger had passed by.
The next day secret meetings were held, and meas- ures were concerted to resist the draft by force. Early on Monday morning an organized band went from shop
821
CITY OF NEW YORK.
to shop, persuading or coercing the men to quit their work and join the procession that was on its way to the provost-marshal's office in Third Avenue. Captain Jenkins and his assistants had just commenced drafting, when the report of a pistol was heard in the street, and at the signal a volley of paving-stones crashed through the windows, overturning the inkstands, and felling two or three of the officials to the ground. In an instant after the infuriated mob, suddenly fired with rage, burst open the doors, broke the furniture, destroyed the records, and beat and dispersed the officials. Deputy Provost-Marshal Vanderpoel was carried out for dead ; the rest escaped uninjured. Not content with wreaking their vengeance on the drafting machinery, the rioters proceeded to fire the building, after pouring camphene on the floor, and the whole block between Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth streets was speedily reduced to ashes. Chief-Engineer Decker, of the Fire Department, has- tened to the spot, but the rioters had gained possession of the hydrants, and would not suffer the firemen to have access to them till the flames were beyond control. The police were driven off, and Superintendent Kennedy was knocked down and nearly beaten to death. In this emergency the mayor made a requisition on General Sandford and General Wool to call out the troops under their command, and telegraphed to Governor Seymour urging him to send militia from the adjoining counties. He also telegraphed to the governors of the neighboring States, and requested the co-operation of Mr. Acton, the president of the police board. General Wool immediately ordered all the garrisons of the various fortifications in the neighborhood to repair to the city,
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HISTORY OF THE
and requested Admiral Paulding to send the marines from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. General Harvey Brown was placed in immediate command of the forces in New York, and was stationed at the police headquarters, whence expeditions of the military and the police were sent in various directions to quell the riot wherever it was reported to be most formidable. General Sandford, with the handful of the militia that remained in the city, took up his headquarters at the Seventh Avenue Arsenal, which he defended from attack, dispersing several mobs in the vicinity, and General Wool and the mayor established themselves at the St. Nicholas. The Tenth New York Regiment, happily, had not yet left. It was ordered to remain, and was stationed, part in the City Arsenal and part in the arsenal at the Central Park. The entire force assembled in the city up to twelve o'clock at night did not amount to one thousand men.
A detachment of the Invalid Corps of about fifty in number, under the command of Lieutenant Reed, was sent in a Third Avenue car to the scene of the riot at Forty-sixth street. The crowd, which by this time had swelled to an army of men, women and children, received notice of their coming, and tearing up the railroad tracks and breaking the telegraph wires, armed themselves therewith, and awaited them at Forty-third street. The soldiers left the car, and Lieutenant Reed, after vainly directing the mob to disperse, committed the fatal mistake of ordering his men to fire blank cartridges. The farcical discharge exasperated the rioters, who sprang on the troops, wrenched their mus- kets from their bands, and beat and maltreated them. The unfortunate soldiers fled in every direction, pursued
823
CITY OF NEW YORK.
by the rioters ; many were killed and nearly all severely injured. The police attempted to interfere, but were driven off with the loss of one of their number. The sight of blood intoxicated the mob, who lost sight of the draft to enter upon a crusade of murder and . plunder. After sacking and burning two private residences in Lexington Avenue, one of which they wrongly supposed to belong to a deputy provost-mar- shal, they proceeded to the office of Provost-Marshal Manierre, in Broadway, near Twenty-eighth street, where the draft had also been commenced in the morn- ing, but had been since suspended. A part of the crowd passed down Fifth Avenue. On their way they per- ceived the American flag displayed in honor of the late victories, over the residence of Judge White, in Fifth Avenue, near Thirty-fifth street. They halted and cried, "Haul down that d-d rag!" The order remaining unheeded, they flung stones through the windows and were about to set fire to the house, when some one proposed that they should first burn the provost-mar- shal's office, whereupon they left, promising to return and complete their work. In a short time the whole block in Broadway between Twenty-eighth and Twenty- ninth streets was in flames. The lower part was used for stores filled with costly articles, and the upper part was occupied as a fashionable boarding-house. The wildest confusion prevailed. The rioters rifled the build- ings of their contents, and the surrounding streets, usually the resort of fashionable promenaders, were soon filled with squalid men, women and children, laden with rich furniture, silver, and articles of wearing ap- parel. The neighborhood rang with the shouts and yells of the lawless mob
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HISTORY OF THE
From this place the mob proceeded to the Colored Orphan Asylum in Fifth Avenue, between Forty-third and Forty-fourth streets, the home of seven or eight hundred colored children, and proceeded to demolish the building in order to gratify their spite against the negroes, whom they regarded as the prime cause of the draft. This feeling rapidly developed, and became one of the most prominent features of the riot. The unfor- tunate negroes were everywhere hunted down; the hotels and private houses where they were employed were attacked, and all who gave them shelter were threatened with violence. It is supposed that a dozen at least were brutally murdered during the course of the day. Some were driven into the river, and others beaten to death or suspended from the lamp- posts. One was thrown into a barrel of blazing whis- key ; another, after having been beaten till he was senseless, was hung to a tree over a fire, where he re- mained until midnight, when he was taken down by the police. The thieves of the city boldly joined the mob, which now thought only of plunder. The Bull's Ilead Tavern, on Forty-fourth street, was burned to the ground because the proprietor refused to supply the rioters with liquor. The residence of Mayor Op- dyke was attacked, and Postmaster Wakeman's house at Yorkville was burned to the ground, together with the Twenty-Third Precinct station-house in the vicinity.
In the afternoon Mayor Opdyke issued a proclama- tion warning the rioters to desist from their proceedings and return to their homes. At the same time he authorized loyal citizens to organize defences on their own premises, and te shoot down any one who should
825
CITY OF NEW YORK.
attempt to break in. A detachment of the police was sent to the Armory in Second Avenue, where a quan- tity of fire-arms was stored, and the superintendent was directed to arm his men, and to defend the building to the last extremity. The rioters made a furious onslaught on the premises, and were at first repulsed. They re- turned to the attack, and after a sharp conflict over- powered the defenders and fired the building, which fell, burying some of their number beneath the ruins.
General Wool issued a proclamation to the veteran volunteers, requesting them to report the next morning at the police headquarters, at 300 Mulberry street, to aid in suppressing the riot. Meanwhile the work of devastation went on. The mob stopped the omnibuses, cars and carriages, broke the telegraph wires, and at- tacked and murdered the passers without provocation. No man of respectable appearance was safe. Toward evening an immense crowd assembled in Printing-House Square, in front of the Tribune office, and, after threat- ening demonstrations, attacked the building. They forced the doors, broke the counters and furniture, and had already kindled a fire, when a detachment of the police charged upon them and put them to flight. This was an unusual eireumstance ; in most of the collisions of the first day the police were overpowered. The most extravagant rumors were circulated ; it was reported that the rioters had seized the gas-works and the reser- voir, and were about to eut off the water and light. The inhabitants were panic-stricken ; they were generally unarmed, flight was impossible, and the city lay at the mercy of a brute crowd. It was a true reign of terror. None who passed through that terrible night will ever
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HISTORY OF THE
forget its horrors. Mobs sprang up in all parts of the city, the horizon was illumined with the flames of blaz- ing houses in every direction, and the air rung with the yells of the rioters. Late in the evening a heavy shower extinguished the smouldering fires and cooled the fury. of the crowd.
The sun rose the next morning on a lugubrious scene. The usual street cries were hushed, and an appalling silence prevailed everywhere. No one ventured abroad, the tradesmen missed their daily rounds, and the break- fast-tables were left unsupplied. The stores were closed and the streets deserted, save by ruffianly men and fiendish women, who were seen prowling here and there, or occasionally a frightened negro crouching in a corner and wildly looking about for some means of escape. This day was even more fearful than the pre- ceding one. The mob early recommenced its fiendish work, burning houses, shooting men, and, above all, persecuting the negroes. How many of this unfortu- nate race perished on that fearful day will never be truly known. Their houses were burned over their heads, and those who escaped from the flames were hunted down and put to death relentlessly. Negroes were seen hanging all day from the lamp-posts, with- out any one having the courage to cut them down. Age or sex was no protection from these fiends, who for a few hours held the whole city at their feet.
In obedience to the call of General Wool, the ex- officers of the returned regiments had met the evening before at the armory of the Seventh Regiment, and concerted measures for rallying their men on the next day, which was accordingly done. Several encounters
827
CITY OF NEW YORK.
took place between the military and the rioters ; and whenever ball-cartridges were promptly used, the latter fled. Lieutenant Wood, at the head of a hundred and fifty soldiers from Fort Lafayette, attempted to disperse a mob of two thousand men, near the corner of Grand and Pitt streets, by ordering his troops to fire over their heads ; this unfortunate proceeding only exasperated the crowd, who answered with stones and other missiles. The troops at length aimed and fired at the rioters, who instantly dispersed, with a loss of twelve of their num- ber, two of whom were children.
Early in the morning news was received that a large mob had gathered in Thirty-fourth street for the pur- pose of plundering and burning the houses in that region. A squad of three hundred policemen, under Inspector Carpenter, was sent to the spot, and with some difficulty succeeded in dispersing the rioters. As . they quitted the spot, they were met by Colonel H. T. O'Brien, of the Eleventh New York State Volunteers, with a detachment of soldiers and two field-pieces. Perceiving that the mob was rallying again, they retraced their steps, and were met with a volley of paving-stones and other missiles ; without hesitation, they fired on the crowd, killing several, among others, a woman and two children. The rioters fled, uttering threats of vengeance against O'Brien.
At noon a fierce battle was fought at the Union Steam Works, on the corner of Second Avenue and Twenty- second street, for the possession of the arms from the Armory, which had been secreted there the day before. After a protracted contest, the police and military suc- ceeded in dispersing the rioters and taking from them a large quantity of arms.
828
HISTORY OF THE
Meanwhile, a bloody scene was being enacted close by. On returning to his head-quarters, Colonel O'Brien had learned that his house was attacked by the mob ; he instantly proceeded thither, and found it sacked from top to bottom. Anxious to learn the fate of his family, he quitted the place and entered a drug-store on the corner of Thirty-fourth street, which was in- di-rectly assailed with sticks and stones by the rioters. The proprietor entreated O'Brien to escape ; but fearing no danger, he boldly stepped on the sidewalk to ex- postulate with the crowd, whereupon he was felled to the earth and stunned, after which his body was drag- ged for hours through the streets and exposed to the most brutal outrages. Two priests, who had been per- mitted to read the last prayers over the dying man, secretly carried his corpse by night in a eart to the dead-house at Bellevue. The mayor subsequently offered a special reward of five hundred dollars for the conviction of the perpetrators of this outrage, which was never avenged.
At noon Governor Seymour arrived in the city and addressed a mild speech to the rioters from the steps of the City Hall, informing them that he had urged the goverment to consent to a suspension of the draft, and had been informed that it would be postponed. During the day the Common Council held a special meeting, and unanimously adopted an ordinance appropriating $2,500,000 to pay the commutation of drafted men. The mayor was urged to approve this ordinance at once, but firmly refused to do so till he had given the subject mature consideration ; feeling, he said, that it would be purchasing the peace of the city too dearly thus to bow
829
CITY OF NEW YORK.
to the dictation of the mob, and to nullify the draft by the expenditure of honor and the sacrifice of so much treasure. He afterwards vetoed the ordinance.
At two in the afternoon the merchants and bankers assembled in force at the Merchants' Exchange, No. 111 Broadway, and on motion of John Austin Stevens, Jr., the secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, unanimously resolved to close their places of business, and to meet on the south side of Wall street for immediate organization in companies of hundreds, pursuant to the call of the mayor, to aid in suppressing the riot. Meanwhile the mayor telegraphed to the secretary of war, requesting him to send a military force to the city. At the same time he issued a proclamation, requesting loyal citizens to report at the police headquarters, No. 300 Mulberry street, for the purpose of being sworn in as special policemen for the preservation of law and order. The venders of arms and ammunition were ordered to close their stores at once, and to cease selling to private persons ; while those citizens whose houses were threat- ened by the rioters were furnished with arms for their defence. An attack on the gas-works being appre- hended, the mayor directed a manufacturer of calcium lights to have a sufficient number of these lights in readiness to facilitate the movements of the forces in case of need. The gas-works, however, were not mo- lested.
In the mean time the work of arson and pillage went on. Mr. Gibbons's house, in Lamartine Place, was sacked by the rioters, under the belief that it was the residence of Mr. Greeley, who chanced to be staying at the house of one of the editors of the Tribune on the same block.
830
HISTORY OF THE
Allerton's Hotel, the Weehawken Ferry-house, and the negro quarters in various parts of the city were burned during the day. At evening, the sky was illumined with the flames of the Eighteenth Precinct station- house, in East Twenty-second street, together with the fire-alarm bell-tower, No. 51 Engine House, and a number of private dwellings, among others, the resi- dence of Port Warden Peck, in East Thirty-third street. By this time, many of the citizens had armed their houses with muskets and hand-grenades, and in Print- ing-House Square two formidable rifled batteries, in front of the Times office, overawed the mob, and pre- vented a recurrence of the scenes of the preceding night.
On Wednesday, the 15th, it was evident that the riot had reached its climax, and was on the wane, for- midable as it still continued. The persecution of the negroes raged even worse than ever. The colored population were subjected to the most frightful atroci- ties ; all day long the bodies of negroes hung sus- pended from trees and lamp-posts in various parts of the city, after their houses had been burned over their heads. The principal fires on this day were a lumber- yard in Fourteenth street, and two large grain ele- vators in the Atlantic Dock Basin. The citizens, by this time, began to recover from their panic, and to take active measures for their protection.
The secretary of war ordered home the regiments that were doing duty in Pennsylvania, while the police and military steadily gamed the advantage in their collisions with the mob. On the afternoon of the 15th the mayor issued a proclamation, announcing that the
831
CITY OF NEW YORK.
riot was in a great measure subdued, with the excep- tion of the bands that were organized for the purpose of plunder, and requesting the citizens to form volun- tary associations to patrol and guard their respective districts. He also declared that the lines of omnibuses, railroads and telegraphs, all of which had been sus- pended, must be put into full operation immediately, and promised them adequate military protection. On the evening of the 15th the Tenth and Fifty-sixth New York Regiments arrived from the seat of war, followed soon after by the Seventh, Eighth, Seventy-fourthi and One Hundred and Sixty-second New York, and Twenty-sixth Michigan regiments. The news of the riot had fired the militia with indignation, and they were eager to reach the city to strike a blow at the dastardly enemy. At midnight on the 15th General Kilpatrick, who had obtained leave of ab- sence from the Army of the Potomac for the express purpose of coming to. New York to subdue the riot, arrived, and was placed in command of all the cavalry in the city. The presence of these troops over- awed the mob, and the disturbance practically ceased on the 16th, though turbulent manifestations continued for some days after. It is just to say, however, that before the arrival of the militia, the combined action of the police and the citizens, together with the slender military force at the disposal of the authorities, had really sufficed to quell, in the short space of three days, one of the most formidable riots ever known.
On the 16th Archbishop Hughes invited the rioters to assemble the next day, Friday, in front of his residence on the corner of Madison Avenue and Thirty-sixth
832
HISTORY OF THE
street, where he would address them. Some five or six thousand persons gathered on the spot. The archbishop appeared on the balcony in his pontifical robes, and exhorted his hearers to return to their homes, and to offer no further resistance to the government. The command was obeyed ; the crowd dispersed quietly, and no disturbance ensued. A large cavalry force patrolled the disaffected district during the night without opposition. The next morning seventy stands of arms and several casks of paving-stones, which had been secreted by the rioters, were found and captured. On the 17th the mayor issued a proclamation declaring that order was restored. A few days after a reward was offered for the conviction of those who had been guilty of murder or arson in the late riot. Many of the ringlead- ers were arrested and brought to trial ; some were con- victed and punished, but none in a degree commensurate with their crime. A man by the name of Andrews was accused of having been the most active of the rioters.
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