Riots on Lexington Avenue
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1865
On the 13th of July, 1863 (the first day of the Draft Riots in our city), the editor of the Tribune was visited in his office about midday by a devoted friend, who urged and entreated him to accompany the said friend to his home, a few miles distant. That friend assured him that he knew that he life of said editor was to be taken forthwith — that it had been plotted and settled that he should be an early and certain victim of the ruffian mob then howling about the Tribune office, and inciting each other to the assault, which they actually made at dusk that night, when they smashed the windows, furniture, etc., and set fire to the building, but were promptly routed and expelled by the police. Riot, arson, and pillage were then rife in different sections of our city, of which the rebel mob appeared to have undisputed possession. The editor (who writes this) informed his friend that nothing would induce him to leave the city — that he was where he had a right to be — and where he should remain. That friend, after exhausting remonstrance and entreaty, left him to his fate, not expecting to see him again. After five P.M. of that day, the editor, having finished his work at the office, went over to Windust's eating-house for his dinner, passing through the howling mob for nearly the entire distance, and recognized by several of them. Two friends accompanied him, but not at his invitation or suggestion. Neither of the three was harmed. At Windust's dinner was ordered and eaten exactly as on other days, but in the largest room in the house, without the shadow of hiding or concealment of any kind. Dinner finished, the editor took a carriage and drove to his lodging, where he resumed writing for the Tribune, and continued it through the evening, sending down his copy to the office, and being visited thence by friends who informed him of the mob's assault, and the narrow escape of the building and contents from destruction. Remaining all night at his lodging, he returned next morning to the office (now being armed), saw from a window the mob howling in its front hastily repaired to the City Hall Park, there to listen to a harangue from Horatio Seymour, and remained there nearly to the close of the day [Tuesday], when he was finally induced to leave by the representation of the good and true soldier who commanded it as fortress, that he would prefer that the mob should not be provided with the extra inducements for assault which the known presence of Mr. Greeley in the building would afford. He returned to the office next morning, though the first hackman to whom he applied refused to let him enter his carriage; and he was in the office nearly throughout each day of that memorable week up to Friday evening, when he (as usual) took the Harlem cars for home at Chappaqua, where he spent the Saturday, as he has done nearly every Saturday, save in winter, for the last fifteen years. And whoever asserts that he at any time that week 'was hiding under Windust's table' is a branded liar and villain, as Mr. Windust, Mr. William A. Hall, and other surviving and most credible witnesses will gladly attest."
Irish Thugs Attack Blacks in Riots
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Harper's Illustrated Weekly
It was a close call for Greeley and his newspaper. "Chanting, 'We'll hang old Greeley to a sour apple tree, And send him straight to Hell,' the mob poured down upon Printing House Square. The police guarding the Tribune were overwhelmed; fires were started in half a dozen spots in the building; desks, tables, type forms, and printing presses were smashed; Greeley and his assistants escaped in the nick of time. The editor was chased into a Park Row restaurant, where he hid under a table," wrote Oliver Carlson in a biography of rival editor James Gordon Bennett.
Attack on Croton Cottage
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1865
Historian Frank Klement wrote: "The first day's rioting seemed to be directed at the draft and symbols of authority. The second day's violence featured attacks upon blacks and their businesses. Some buildings were burned and black men were assaulted and beaten or killed. A mob attacked and burned the Colored Orphan Asylum (all 237 children escaped) — there was no such institution for the orphans of Irish-Americans and German-Americans. Arson and plunder and killings continued for two more days." Noted historian Daniel Van Pelt: "By the heroism and coolness of the attendants the two hundred young inmates were fortunately conducted to a place of safety by a rear door as the raging fiends broke in the front door. The torch was applied in twenty places at once, and the building burned to the ground. From day to day the mob became bolder in their depredations. They went comparatively unresisted over the entire island."
Destruction of the Provost Marshalls Office
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1865
Lincoln's son Robert was still missing on Tuesday but evidently en route to the White House. A worried father sent Robert a telegram: "Why do I heard no more of you?" The 14th was also the day that Governor Seymour arrived in the city. He met Mayor Opdyke at the St. Nicholas Hotel around noon and then addressed citizens rioters in front of City Hall. "The Governor made a few remarks intended to allay the popular excitement, and earnestly counseled obedience to the laws and constituted authorities. He also read a letter, containing a statement that the conscription had been postponed by the authorities in Washington," wrote Major T. P. McElrath. "This speech of Governor Seymour, owing to his well-known affiliation with the opposition, was severely criticised by his political opponents, chiefly on account of his opening it with the words, 'My friends.' While he was speaking, however, his previous proclamation showed that he was exerting his influence for suppressing the insurrection, and he could hardly be expected to address a peaceable audience with the invective applicable to red-handed rioters and incendiaries. In his remarks he expressed his belief that the conscription act was illegal, and announced his determination to have it tested in the courts. In dwelling upon these points he may have violated good taste, but it must be borne in mind that his purpose was to soothe an unusual popular excitement, and the end was justified in using whatever reasonable arguments were available for that purpose."
Assaults During Riot
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1865
On arrival in the city, Governor Seymour "issued two proclamations," noted historian Sidney David Brummer. "One reminded those who had resorted to violence 'under an apprehension of injustice that the only permissible opposition to the draft was an appeal to the courts. 'Riotous proceedings,' he proclaimed, 'must and shall be put down. The laws of the State of New York must be enforced, its peace and order maintained, and the lives and property of all its citizens protected at any and every hazard.' And the Governor threatened that unless the rioters retired to their homes and employments, he would use all the power necessary to restore tranquility to the City. The second proclamation declared the City to be in a state of insurrection — an act of wisdom, since it permitted the complete and legal use of the military, the only power capable of suppressing the disturbance. Of course, the Unionist press did not fail to point out that the Governor had not announced that the laws of the United States must and would be enforced. Appended to one of the proclamations was a request that loyal citizens should enroll at designated places to aid in preserving peace. This idea was carried out."
Angry mob watches as the body of a lynched African American man burns
Photomechanical Print
That night, attorney George Templeton Strong wrote in his diary: "At 823 [Broadway — headquarters of the U.S. Sanitary Commission] with [Dr. Henry W.] Bellows four to six; then home. At eight to Union League Club. Rumor it's be attacked tonight. Some say there is to be great mischief tonight and that the rabble is getting the upper hand. Home at ten and sent for by Dudley Field, Jr., to confer about an expected attack on his house and his father's, which adjoin each other in this street just below Lexington Avenue."
Sacking of the brownstone houses in Lexington Avenue by the rioters on Monday, July 13
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New York Illustrated News
By Tuesday, Union officials in Washington began to understand how serious the situation was when they received telegrams such as this from Provost Marshal, John Duffy: "Headquarters destroyed by the mob. Papers safe." Fry telegraphed Nugent on Tuesday: " Suspend the draft in New York City and Brooklyn." In another Tuesday telegram, Fry wired Colonel Nugent: "Set your detectives at work to ascertain the names of the ringleaders and other principal men concerned in the late riot, and to get evidence against them, so that they may be arrested and tried." Provost Marshal General Fry wrote Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton on Tuesday.
Rioters chasing negro women and children through the vacant lots in Lexington Avenue
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New York Illustrated News
"The enforcement of the draft was yesterday seriously resisted in the ninth district of the city of New York. The mob, variously estimated in numbers up as high as 30,000, attacked the officers of this bureau in the performance of their duty, and destroyed the building in which the draft had been conducted, and many of the rolls, records, and appurtenances connected with the draft. The military and the police force of the city on duty there were overwhelmed and dispersed.
Sacking Brooks' Clothing Store
Engraving
Harper's Weekly
In the present condition of things, I do not think the draft can be made without additional force. I therefore recommend that four regiments of infantry and a battery of artillery be sent immediately to New York City, and, without intending to travel beyond the line of my duty, I would state that I think the public interest, so far as my department is concerned, would be greatly promoted if Major General [Irvin] McDowell can be assigned to such command as will enable him to direct the military operations necessary to enforce the draft in the State of New York and New England. The numbers and importance in this riot are doubtless greatly exaggerated, but I deem it sufficiently serious to justify the suggestions herein made."
Burning of the 2nd Avenue Armory
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Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, July 25, 1865
Episcopal minister Morgan Dix, son of the city's military commander, later wrote: "Thus the days wore on, with dust and smoke, with fire and flame; with sack of private dwellings and burning of charitable institutions, armories, and draft stations; with blood and wounds, and every imaginable instance of atrocity on the part of the maddened mob, till regiments, hurriedly withdrawn from the front, came speeding back to the city, and we saw the grim batteries and weatherstained and dusty soldiers tramping into our leading streets as if into a town just taken by siege. There was some terrific fighting between the regulars and the insurgents; streets were swept again and again by grape, houses were stormed at the point of the bayonet, rioters were picked off by sharpshooters as they fired on the troops from the house-tops; men were hurled, dying or dead, into the streets by the thoroughly enraged soldiery; until at last, sullen and cowed, and thoroughly whipped and beaten, the miserable wretches gave way at every point and confessed the power of the law. It has never been known how many perished in those awful days."
Police Battling Rioters
Engraving
Harper's Weekly
Major T.P. McElrath wrote: "Scenes of violence and carnage, such as I have described, prevailed in the streets of New York from Monday noon until Thursday night. The political sentiment, which displayed itself in the original assault on the draft office, in Third avenue, disappeared after that demonstration, and thenceforward the mob was actuated solely by an instinct of rapine and plunder."