The New York Draft Riots of 1863

One of the key determinants of military success is the size of manpower available to you. When war is first declared, there is a rush of fervour for the cause that sees volunteers flock to join the standing army. But as the war drags on interminably and the death toll and carnage mounts, the flow of volunteers slows down to a trickle. Such was the case with the army of the Union in the American Civil War and the shortage of manpower prompted the authorities to take drastic measures.

In March 1863 a law was passed which imposed strict conscription criteria. All male citizens aged between 20 and 35 and all unmarried men aged between 35 and 45 were now eligible for service in the army. Those who would be drafted would be selected by lottery, the first of which was held on Saturday 11^th July 1863. There were get-out clauses. You could hire a substitute – charming – or if you could afford it, pay $300 to remove yourself from the rolls. African-Americans, who were not considered to be citizens, were exempt from the conscription.

This exemption poured oil on already troubled waters. Following Abraham Lincoln’s emancipation declaration of September 1862 which promised freedom to slaves in Confederate areas from 1^st January of the following year, many members of New York’s working class, the majority of whom were Irish immigrants, feared that the newly emancipated slaves would travel north and take their jobs. That they were exempted from military service was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Following the first conscription lottery and acknowledging the Sunday as a day of rest, all hell broke out in the early hours of Monday the 13^th. Initially, the mobs reserved their ire for symbols of authority such as governmental and military buildings but in the afternoon, they turned their attentions to the African-American community, assaulting them and attacking their properties. One of the worst incidents was an attack on the Coloured Orphan Asylum on 5^th Avenue. Two hundred children were in the premises when the mob armed with clubs broke in, looting the premises and razing it to the ground.

The Catholic bishop, John Hughes, vainly appealed for calm and it was soon apparent that a more robust approach was required to restore order. By midday, 4,000 federal troops had arrived in the city and confronted the rioters in what is now the Murray Hill district of the Big Apple. Surprisingly, Irish contingents amongst the troops were keen to mix it with their compatriots, the Irish-American 9^th Massachussetts wishing “for a chance to give those fellows [the rioters] a taste of our quality, and show them how the Irish Ninth could charge.”

It took three days for order to be restored, by which time some 120 had lost their lives – 11 African-Americans were lynched – and around 2,000 were injured and the value of property damage was estimated to be around $5 million. Around a quarter of the 12,000 African-Americans in New York were made homeless, many by landlords fearful for the security of their property and many moved away from the area, causing a major change in demographics.

The draft was resumed on 19^th August without incident and the Union League Club and the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Coloured people raised $40,000 to assist some 2,500 victims of the riots. The Union Club recruited over 2,000 African-American soldiers in December 1863, kitting them out and training them. They were watched by a crowd of 100,000 in March the following year as they marched to the Hudson River docks. But the draft riots had allowed the white population to extend their control over the labour market and made the job of reconciliation and integration all the harder.

Filed under: Culture, History Tagged: Abraham Lincoln, Archbishop John Hughes, Coloured Orphan Asylum, consequences of Draft Riots of 1863, emancipation declaration, New York draft riots of 1863