Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1883-08-10
The Draft Riots of 1868.
From Morgan Dix's Memoir OF Els Fathe


From Morgan Dixs Memoir OF Ills Father,
General Dix.
The story Of those terrible days of July
has been fully told. 7 shall not give it
here, though an eyewitness of the con-
fused and bloody scene. The trouble
began, as have said on Saturday, the
18th; nearly a week had passed before
we knew that We were safe. I was liv-
ing at that time in the old rectory Of the
parish, so Varick street. The house
stood in dangerous quarter. The large
garden WAS separated in the rear by
mere bl ick wall from st. Johns lane and
York street, which we're inhabited al
most exclusively by colored people. At
St. Johns chapel, which stood close Ivy.
We had large Sunday school Of colored
children It will be remembered that,
by some dull mob-l logic, the rioters as
cribed the public troubles TO the negro,
aud made that unfortunate race the
subject OF incessant assaults. In
tending to leave the city on Mon
day, I was stopped by the rumor ofconn-
III. evil and dared not venture to be ab
sent at that trying time. remember
one of my servants flying into my libra
ry that evening, with pale face. and tell
ing me that, while passing through
GARRISON street on some errand, she had
seen colored man hanging on tree,
and men and women setting him on
f~e as he dangled from the branches. I
must have been an effigy, but she con-
stantly affirmed that it was true; and
said she was right, as I subsequently as
certained. That night, or the following
one, the streets behind the rectorv were
sacked by the mob. saw their attack
from the upper window Of my house
and heard the bursting IN Of doors, the
crash of glass and the roaring Of voices,
with shrieks and cries-veritable pande-
moniunl. Next day learned THAT an
attack was planned on st Joseph's chap
Ell, apparently for no other reason than
that we had our colorea school there.
By prompt application to
the authorities I got a
watch set on the church, and O. squad
ron Of dragons stood all night drawn
up outside my garden wall, ready for
the rioters if they should come. Mean.
while. at a dozen different points
throughout the city battles were in pro-
gress; and never Was greater valor dis
played than by the police, who threw
themselves, lion-like, upon the wild
beasts. IN the proportion generally Of
10 to 5000; taking no prisoners, and
sire wing the streets wit. dead and woun-
ded W hereyer their swift AMI terrible
blows fell Thus the days wore on, with
fire and flame; with sack of private
dwellings and burning of charitable in
stituions, armories and draft stations;
with blood and wounds, and every I'M
aginabe instance of aIrocity 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 bat
teres and weather-staned and dusty
soldiers tramping into our leading streets
as if into town just taken by siege.
There was some terrific fighting be-
tween 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 sharpshc oters as they fred on the
! troops from the house-tops: men were
hurried, dying or dead, into the streets
by the thoroughly enraged soldiery;
| until at last, sullen and coWed, and thor
oughly whipped and beaten, the miser-
able wretches gave way at every point
and confessed the power of the law. It
| has never been known how many per.
ished in those awful days. According
! to the lowest estimate so&ne 1900 0: the
rioters must have been killed, q FIVE
or six times that number wounded; but
they hid their losses as far as possible,
and disposed Of their dead in silence
and Darkness