New York Draft Riot, 1863
Over the course of four days from July 13-16, 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. This illustration shows rioters
confronting the militia on First Avenue.
