New York City draft riots The New York City draft riots ( July 13 – 16 , 1863 ; known at the time as Draft Week ) were violent disturbances in New York City that were the culmination of working - class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War . The riots remain the largest civil insurrection in American history outside of the Civil War itself . President Lincoln was forced to divert several regiments of militia and volunteer troops from following up after the Battle of Gettysburg to control the city . The rioters were overwhelmingly working - class men , primarily ethnic Irish , resenting particularly that wealthier men , who could afford to pay a $ 300 commutation fee to hire a substitute , were spared the draft . Initially intended to express anger at the draft , the protests turned into an ugly race riot , with the white rioters , chiefly Irish immigrants , attacking blacks wherever they could be found . At least 100 black people were estimated to have been killed . The conditions in the city were such that Major General John E . Wool , commander of the Department of the East , stated on July 16 , " Martial law ought to be proclaimed , but I have not a sufficient force to enforce it . " The military did not reach the city until after the first day of rioting , when mobs had already ransacked or destroyed numerous public buildings , two Protestant churches , the homes of various abolitionists or sympathisers , many black homes , and the Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue , which was burned to the ground . Background . New York ' s economy was tied to the South ; by 1822 nearly half of its exports were cotton shipments . In addition , upstate textile mills processed cotton in manufacturing . New York had such strong business connections to the South that on January 7 , 1861 , Mayor Fernando Wood , a Democrat , called on the city ' s Board of Aldermen to " declare the city ' s independence from Albany and from Washington " ; he said that it “ would have the whole and united support of the Southern States . ” When the Union entered the war , New York City had many southern sympathisers . The city was also a continuing destination of immigrants ; since the 1840s , most were from Ireland and Germany . In 1860 , nearly 25 % of the New York City population was German - born , and many did not yet speak English . During the 1840s and 1850s , journalists had published sensational accounts , directed at the working class , dramatising the " evils " of interracial socialising relationships and marriages ; reformers joined the effort . Newspapers carried derogatory portrayals of blacks and ridiculed " black aspirations for equal rights in voting , education , and employment " . Pseudo - scientific lectures on phrenology were popular , although countered by doctors . At the time , some areas of the city , such as Lower Manhattan , had mixed populations of residents . The Democratic Party Tammany Hall political machine had been working to enroll immigrants as U . S . citizens so they could vote in local elections , and had strongly recruited Irish , most of whom already spoke English . In 1863 , with the war continuing , Congress passed a law to establish a draft for the first time , as more troops were needed . In New York City and other locations , the new citizens learned that they were expected to register for the draft to fight for their new country . Black men were excluded from the draft as they were not considered citizens , and wealthier white men could pay for substitutes . Free black men and immigrants competed for low - wage jobs in the city . While New York political offices , including the mayor , were held by Democrats , the election of Abraham Lincoln as president had demonstrated the rise in Republican political power nationally . The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1863 alarmed much of the working class in New York , who feared that freed slaves would migrate to the city and add further competition to the labor market . There had already been tensions between black and white workers since the 1850s , particularly at the docks . In March 1863 , white longshoremen had refused to work with blacks and rioted , attacking 200 black men . In this area of the city , there were a variety of interracial venues of brothels and bars , and neighborhoods were mixed in terms of residents . Men also competed as hacks , craftsmen and in other jobs . Riots . Monday . There were reports of rioting in Buffalo , New York , and certain other cities , but the first drawing of numbers on July 11 , 1863 occurred peaceably in New York City . The second drawing was held on Monday , July 13 , 1863 , ten days after the Union victory at Gettysburg . At 10 : 00 , a furious crowd of around 500 , led by the volunteer firemen of Engine Company 33 ( known as the " Black Joke " ) , attacked the assistant Ninth District Provost Marshal ' s Office , at Third Avenue and 47th Street , where the draft was taking place . The crowd threw large paving stones through windows , then burst through the doors and set the building ablaze . When the fire department responded , rioters broke up their vehicles . Others killed horses pulling streetcars and smashed the cars . To prevent other parts of the city being notified of the riot , they cut telegraph lines . Many of the rioters were Irish laborers who feared having to compete with emancipated slaves for jobs . Since the New York State Militia had been sent to assist Union troops in Pennsylvania , the New York City Police Department was the only force to try to suppress the riots . The police superintendent , John A . Kennedy , arrived at the site on Monday to check on the situation . Although not in uniform , he was recognised by people in the mob who attacked him . Kennedy was left nearly unconscious , having had his face bruised and cut , his eye injured , lips swollen , and his hand cut with a knife ; he was beaten to a mass of bruises and blood all over his body . Police drew their club s and revolver s , and charged the crowd , but were overpowered . The police forces were badly outnumbered and unable to quell the riots ; but they kept the rioting out of Lower Manhattan below Union Square . Immigrants and others in the " Bloody Sixth " Ward , around the seaport and Five Points area , refrained from getting involved in the rioting . The Bull ' s Head hotel on 44th Street , which refused to provide alcohol to the mob , was burned . The mayor ' s residence on Fifth Avenue , the Eighth and Fifth District police stations , and other buildings were attacked and set on fire . Other targets included the office of the " New York Times " . The mob was turned back at the " Times " office by staff manning Gatling gun s , including " Times " founder Henry Jarvis Raymond . Fire engine companies responded , but some of the firefighters were sympathetic to the rioters , since they too had been drafted on Saturday . Later in the afternoon , authorities shot and killed a man as a crowd attacked the Armory at Second Avenue and 21st Street . The mob broke all the windows with paving stones ripped from the street . Rioters turned against black people as their scapegoats and the primary target of their anger . Many immigrants and the poor viewed free black men as competition for scarce jobs , and worried about more slaves being emancipated and coming to New York for work . Some rioters thought slavery was the cause of the Civil War . The mob beat , tortured and / or killed numerous black people , including one man who was attacked by a crowd of 400 with clubs and paving stones , then lynched — hanged from a tree and set alight . The Colored Orphan Asylum at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue , which then provided shelter for 233 children , was attacked by a mob at around 16 : 00 . It was a " symbol of white charity to blacks and of black upward mobility . " A mob of several thousand , including many women and children , looted the building of its food and supplies . However , the police were able to secure the orphanage for enough time to allow the orphans to escape before the building was burned down . Throughout the areas of rioting , mobs attacked and killed at least 100 black people , and destroyed their known homes and businesses , such as James McCune Smith ' s pharmacy at 93 West Broadway , believed to be the first owned by a black man in the United States . While removed from the midtown area of the riots , white longshoremen used the chaos of events to " remove all evidence of a black and interracial social life from the area near the docks . White dockworkers attacked and destroyed brothels , dance halls , boarding houses , and tenements that catered to blacks ; mobs stripped the clothing off the white owners of these businesses . " Tuesday . Heavy rain fell on Monday night , helping to abate the fires and sending rioters home , but the crowd returned the next day . Commerce in the city was halted , with workers joining the crowd . Rioters attacked the homes of notable Republicans , including the activist Abby Hopper Gibbons , among others . Governor Horatio Seymour arrived on Tuesday and spoke at City Hall , where he attempted to assuage the crowd by proclaiming the Conscription Act was unconstitutional . General John E . Wool , Commander of the Eastern District , brought approximately 800 soldiers and Marines in from forts in New York Harbor , West Point and the Brooklyn Navy Yard . He also ordered the militias to return to New York . Wednesday and Thursday : order restored . The situation improved on Wednesday , when assistant provost - marshal - general Robert Nugent received word from his superior officer , Colonel James Barnet Fry , to suspend the draft . As this news appeared in newspapers , some rioters stayed home . But some of the militias began to return and used harsh measures against the remaining mobs . Order began to be restored on Thursday . The New York State militia and some federal troops were returned to New York , including the 152nd New York Volunteers , the 26th Michigan Volunteers , the 27th Indiana Volunteers and the 7th Regiment New York State Militia from Frederick , Maryland , after a forced march . In addition , the governor sent in the 74th and 65th regiments of the New York State Militia , which had not been in federal service , and a section of the 20th Independent Battery , New York Volunteer Artillery from Fort Schuyler in Throgs Neck . The NYSM units were the first to arrive . By July 16 , there were several thousand Federal troops in the city . A final confrontation occurred on Thursday evening near Gramercy Park . According to Adrian Cook ' s analysis in his " Armies of the Streets " ( 1974 ) , twelve people died on the last day of the riots in skirmishes between rioters and the police and army , including one African American , two soldiers , a bystander , and two women . Aftermath . The exact death toll during the New York Draft Riots is unknown , but according to historian James M . McPherson ( 2001 ) , at least 120 civilians were killed . At least eleven black men were killed by lynching . Violence by longshoremen against black men was especially fierce in the docks area . The most reliable estimates indicate that at least 2 , 000 people were injured . Herbert Asbury , the author of the 1928 book " Gangs of New York " , upon which the 2002 film was based , puts the figure much higher , at 2 , 000 killed and 8 , 000 wounded , but this figure is not widely accepted and is considered myth . Total property damage was about $ 1 – 5 million ( $ 15 – $ 75 million in 2011 , adjusted for inflation ) . The city treasury later indemnified one - quarter of the amount . The historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote that the riots were " equivalent to a Confederate victory " . Fifty buildings , including two Protestant churches and the Colored Orphan Asylum , burned to the ground . During the riots , landlords had driven blacks from their residences , as they feared their buildings being destroyed . As a result of the violence against blacks , hundreds left New York , including James McCune Smith , moving to Williamsburg , Brooklyn ( still a separate city ) and New Jersey . The white elite in New York organised to provide relief to black riot victims , helping them find new work and homes . The Union League Club and the Committee of Merchants for the Relief of Colored People provided nearly $ 40 , 000 to 2500 victims of the riots . By 1865 the total black population had dropped to under 10 , 000 , the lowest it had been since 1820 . The white working class riots had changed the demographics of the city and exerted their control in the workplace ; they became " unequivocally divided " from blacks . On August 19 , the government resumed the draft in New York . It was completed within 10 days without further incident . Fewer men were drafted than had been feared by the working class : of the 750 , 000 selected nationwide for conscription , only about 45 , 000 went into service . While the rioting mainly involved the working class , middle and upper - class New Yorkers had split sentiments on the draft and use of federal power or martial law to enforce it . Many wealthy Democratic businessmen sought to have the draft declared unconstitutional . Tammany Democrats did not seek to have the draft declared unconstitutional , but helped pay the commutation fees for those who were drafted . In December 1863 , the Union League Club gained permission to raise a regiment of black soldiers , outfitted and trained them , and saw the thousand men off with a parade through the city to the Hudson River docks in March 1864 ; a crowd estimated at one hundred thousand watching the procession led by police and members of the Union League Club . New York City ' s support for the Union cause continued , however grudgingly , and gradually Southern sympathies declined in the city . New York banks eventually financed the Civil War , and the state ' s industries were more productive than the entire Confederacy . By the end of the war , more than 450 , 000 soldiers , sailors and militia had enlisted from New York State , which was the most populous at the time . A total of 46 , 000 military men from New York State died during the war , more from disease than wounds . Order of Battle . New York City Police Department . New York Metropolitan Police Department under the command of Superintendent John A . Kennedy . < br > Commissioners Thomas Coxon Acton and John G . Bergen took command when Kennedy was seriously injured by a mob during the early stages of the riots . New York State Militia . 1st Division : Major General Charles W . Sandford Union Army . Department of the East : Major General John E . Wool Defenses of New York City : Brevet Brigadier General Harvey Brown , Brigadier General Edward R . S . Canby Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton authorised five regiments from Gettysburg , mostly federalised state militia and volunteer units from the Army of the Potomac , to reinforce the New York City Police Department . By the end of the riots , there were over 4 , 000 soldiers in New York City . Fiction . Theatre and film :