Bismarck weekly tribune., 1885-11-13
a NEW YORK MOB.
ACCOUNT OF The ATTACK ON THE
4 TRIBUNE OFFICE in 1863, ~
A Set OF Alarmed Typos Rioters Soaking
the ONCE Barricading the Doors
Charge Of the POLICE Navy Yard
l;g Bombs.
THE Iollrnalistl

h C1ue JOurnellSGI --
II have read Edmund Kirke's account,
Z and other accounts Of the attack on The
Tribune Office in 1863" said Amos Cum.
mings in the Press club recently, 3but none
Of them were written by any one who was
q aparticipant in that fight. saw the whole
& thing from the beginning to the end. On
. the day before the riot had been mustered
s out of service from the Twenty-sixth New
Jersey volunteers at Newark, N. j. had
left compositor's case in The Tribune office
to join the regiment, and had served my
time in the field. On receiving six months
pay and my discharge papers, I felt like a
bird loosed from a cage.
3On the morning of the 18th went to
The Tribune office, and was surprised to see
quite crowd collected around the count
ing-room. The building where the draft
was being made had been burned down on
the preceding night and there was much ex-
citement. AL the militia had been sent to
Pennsylvania to stop Gen. Lees advance,
and there was no regiment in the city. I
went upstairs into The Tribune composing
room to talk with the boys Smith O'Brien,
an old Tribune compositor, offered me $40
to sub for him, or work at his case that
night. I took him up on the instant. All
the compositors were alarmed, and if
had waited could probably have
got $50 bonus. Every man supposed that
the Office was going to be mobbed, and stood
In fear Of his life. I had hardly begun to
9 distribute type when my brother who had
served in the army with me, came in and
accepted u bonus of $40 to work for another
regular compositor.
sACKING THE OFFICE.
1.-THE crowd in front of the Office grew
greater. and the air was filed with curses
and imprscations. A few compositors de-
serted their cases early in the afternoon.
Those who remained were extremely nerv-
twilight I went to the corner win
dow on the top floor and looked
out into Park place. The mob had
grown until it reached across the street,
and stopped over into the park. 1t was COM
posed of boys and many men, who ap-
peared to be respectable. The day was
very hot, AMI many were in their shirt
sleeves. The sidewalk was packed SO that
pedestrians could not pass. The doors of
the counting-room were closed, but the gag
was lighted, and old Ephraim K. Jenny and
o few of the clerks stood at their desks.
The yelling and confusion was indescriba-
bic. 1. heard jingling of glass on the
pavement. saw a rush and I knew that
the doors had been broken open, and that
the Office was being sacked. I saw in the
twilight bundles of newspapers, ledgers and
stationery, hurled through the windows A
bundle OF newspapers was caught by man
wearing linen coat, whose ferocity was SO
great that he tore the loose Tribunes in bits
with his teeth.
a'@The mob had possession of the counting
room fully ten minutes The affrighted
compositors climbed up q narrow rickety
stairway leading to the roof Of the building,
and made their escape through the scuttle
on Tammany hall Only four of them re-
manned iu the composing-room. These four
were: Peter Hackett, now dead; Sylvester
Bailey, now compositor on The Sunday
Democrat my brother, also dead. and N.Y.
self. After what had seen at Fredericks-
and Chapcellorsville, this row seemed to be
only farce. could conceive Of nothing
more ridiculous. As to leaving the build
ing, never thought of it We got the old
printing "turtles, "for there was no stereotyp-
ing then. together AMI barricaded the door
Of the composing-room with them had q
revolver and the three men with me armed
themselves with lead side-sticks. We knew
that we could hold the narrow iron stair
way against 1000 men if necessary.
Bailey and my brother had been
in the army with ma and were oil soldiers
Peter Hackett had learned military tactics
at Irish fairs
"After barricading the doors went to
the front windows. The mob had set the
counting room on fire, and many of them
were In the street shouting to me to come
down and avoid being burned with the
building. I drew the revolver and was
about to fire at the crowd when Myron
Rocker. now editor of The Albany Press
and Knickerbocksr. and then night editor
of The Tribune, caught me by the arm and
said:
"'Don't shoot for Gods sakei It is bad
enough as 1t isr
*He had come up stairs from the editorial
room and climbed over the 'turtles' I took
his advice. A part Of the mob stood
around the Spruce street entrance to the
composing room, aud several of the COM
positors, editors and reporters, who had
tried to escape in that way, had been
roughly handled.
A SQUAD OF POLICE.
3While l was standing at the window I
saw a dark line of men coming M
Spruce street Very few gaslamps had been
lighted. The upper windows OF The Times
building were filled with compositors and
others watching the scene. The line of men
proved to be squad OF police healed by
Capt Thomas Thorne, warm friend Of
Horace Greeley. I could see them advanc-
ing with steady front by the light in The
Times building. Mr.. Greeley was not in
the office when the attack was made. He
had lett early in the afternoon and had mar
rowly escaped violence at the hands of the
mob.
@Thorne's force came upon the rioters
like tornado Clubs alone were used, but
there was an occasional fash of pistols in
the hands Of the rioters. In one minute the
plaza was cleared. Probably fifty men
were writhing on the pavement, and Il
looked as though some Of them had been
killed. ALL however, were wounded The
most OF them were suffering from blow, in
dicted by the billies. It mu,t have been
about z o'clock in the evening when Thorne
Y made his charge.
Il went over to the Park barracks and go
some old soldiers who were quartered there
TO come over to The Tribune office and stanG
guard. Among them was Tom Holmes, O.
the Fifth Wisconsin regiment, brother oi
Ned Holmes now managing editor of The
New York Dispatch. I remember that il
walking through the debris OF the counting
room Tom picked up roll of greenbacks
aqprepatinp over &2OO which he aftarwa rf