New York Draft Riot
Over the course of four days in July 1863, New York City was the scene of the bloodiest civil disturbance in United States history when rioting followed the first federal draft to provide troops for the Civil War. The rioters were largely workers, particularly Irish immigrants, who could not afford to buy draft exemptions and feared competition for jobs from blacks. As a working class neighborhood filled with tenements and factories, Rose Hill and Kips Bay was the location of some of the most intense violence.
Rioting and public violence were commonplace in nineteenth century America and were even considered to be legitimate forms of political protest. However, the scale of the New York Draft Riot was staggering. Rioters attacked symbols of authority, including draft offices, armories and police stations, and symbols of wealth such as private homes and stores. Workplaces were ordered to shut down and some were ransacked. African American New Yorkers became a target of the rioters, who burned down the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and attacked blacks on the street and in their homes. Eleven black men were murdered; some were publicly lynched and mutilated. The militia was called out and U.S. Army troops had to be rushed from the battlefield at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to put down the violence. By the end of the rioting over one hundred people had died, including police officers and soldiers.
Following is an account of the events in Rose Hill and Kips Bay:
