President Lincoln and much of the Republican element of the U.S. Congress, concerned with the numbers of veteran troops whose terms of enlistments had expired and wanting to press the war to a conclusion, had approved of a conscription law to draft soldiers into the army to augment the number of volunteers. "Draft Week" in New York City was scheduled for mid-July 1863. Because of opposition to the draft, Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and volunteer troops (some fresh off the Gettysburg battlefield) to control the city. The rioters numbered in the thousands, and were predominantly Irish Catholics.