New York Draft Riot - cont.
July 15, 1863
The day opened with Second and Third Avenues strewn with rubble. Crowds gathered
at the intersection of 33rd Street and Third Avenue, denouncing the draft
and cheering Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy.
Troops were sent to protect symbols of wealth such as Gramercy Park and the Fifth Avenue Hotel at Madison Square.
A mob attacked Jackson's Foundry on 28th Street between First and Second Avenues, trapping soldiers and police inside. Additional troops arrived and faced the rioters on First Avenue, opening fire. According to one account: "The command was then given to fire, and a volley was poured into the crowd. Rapidly loading and firing, the troops soon stretched so many on the pavement, that the rest broke and fled." The crowd retreated to Second Avenue, where a house was set on fire.
A militia unit was attacked on First Avenue between 17th and 18th Streets. Several officers took refuge in a basement on 19th Street where they were beaten to death.
Rioters attacked 147 East 28th Street, where several black families lived. The black residents fled to the alley behind the tenement, where several were beaten and one man was killed. The crowd moved on to Broadway Alley off of Third Avenue where it found a black man named Alfred Dudley and killed him.
