Military Draft Essay
When the Civil War broke out and men were needed to serve in the war, the government used conscription, the mandatory induction of men into the military.1 Though some people use this word just like the word draft, the two concepts are different. Draft is the process to determine who will be chosen to serve; it’s like a lottery. Currently, men ages 18-25 have to register with the Select Service with the possibility of serving in the military,2 but conscription itself was abolished in 1973.3 New York City was considered the business capital of the U. S. When the Civil War began in April 1861, citizens of the city were divided as to their role in the war. Many merchants and financial institutions did not want to lose their Southern business, but the mayor of New York wanted it to secede from the Union. The poor people of the city felt the Civil War was making money for the rich and they were resentful. When the first military draft was created in March 1863 and established to support troops fighting in the South, it caused even more friction between the citizens. All men between 20 and 45 years old were required
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to serve.4 However, rich men were allowed pay a $300 commutation fee, which allowed them to not serve in the
Civil War.5 This $300 was the equivalent of $5,500 in today’s money.
The Irish, one of the largest immigrant groups in New York, 6 felt they were being discriminated against because they had to serve in the Civil War. Because of their low wages, often less than $500 a year, the Irish were very upset by the federal provision allowing wealthy draftees to buy their way out of the Federal Army for $300. They simply did not have that kind of money. Because blacks were not considered American citizens during this time of history, they did not have to register for the draft. When the drawing of names began in New York on July 11, 1863, mobs of foreign-born workers, especially the Irish, stormed the city streets, assaulted residents, refused to listen to police orders, attacked draft headquarters, and burned buildings. Property damage eventually totaled
$1,500,000.7
In the month before the July 1863 conscription law, newspaper editors who wrote anti-war inflammatory articles inflamed the anger of the white working class. The corrupt editors focused on the working class -- primarily Irish immigrants -- to get them upset about having to serve in the war. The writers claimed the federal government was nosing into the city’s local affairs on behalf of the "n” war.8 Innocent blacks were strung up from lampposts, shot, and stabbed in retaliation for the conscription law. In addition, the leaders of the Democratic Party incited the working people of New York even further by saying their city was being overrun with Southern blacks because of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Due to the city’s economic instability, Irish citizens and many others believed their jobs were in jeopardy because blacks were gaining power. From the time of Lincoln's election in 1860, the Democratic Party had warned New York's Irish and German residents to prepare for the freed slaves who would be coming north to take their jobs.
The first day of the draft, July 11, no residents were physically out of control and there were no signs of unrest from the troubled residents. However, officials started reading the conscripted lists of the men who would be serving and the rumblings began. People began protesting, though not aggressively -- yet. There was no rioting in New York on this day, though there was in other cities. Initial opposition had been focused on the draft itself, but the draft later turned into a racial issue. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co., spent the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.
When city officials and a few police officers arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the July 13, they were confronted by about 500 agitated, armed men. This was the first day of the New York Draft Riots. A volunteer fire company, known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, arrived a few minutes after the draft started. They were hot that their chief had been chosen. These rowdy men were famous for their fire-fighting and fist-fighting skills.9 These fire fighters and others started breaking the building’s windows and forced their way inside.
After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors were growing in numbers and were spreading throughout across the city.
The Irish ended up using New York’s blacks as scapegoats for all of the grievances and hard feelings they had. As a result, the homes of many innocent blacks were destroyed and many lost their lives. The out-of-control Irish stormed an orphan for black children called A Colored Orphan Asylum, which housed more than 600 children.10 The majority of the rioters were women and children who entered the premises, and ransacked and plundered the building from cellar to rooftop. A 10-year-old little girl named Jane was killed by flying furniture.11 Other items from the orphanage were tossed out of the upper windows. Members of the angry mob even stole items from the orphanage, including outfits for little babies. In an attempt to stop the angry mob, the headmaster of the orphanage put a flag of truce out on the sidewalk. The angry mob paid no attention to it and kept on destroying the property.
As the 2,000 out-of-control demonstrators were trying to set the orphanage on fire, Chief Engineer Decker stood on the steps of the orphanage’s entrance and begged them to stop. He did not want them to “burn a benevolent institution, which had for its object nothing but good.”12
The mobsters wanted to burn the building and murder the children, which Decker said would be a lasting disgrace to them and to the City of New York. They burned the orphanage anyway.
After an hour and a half, the orphanage went up in flames. The children were then transferred to another facility and the orphanage was eventually rebuilt. On the second day of the draft lottery on July 14, 1863, more demonstrations were held in protest of the draft. The government’s attempt to enforce the draft in New York City was the catalyst behind the most destructive civil disturbance in the city’s history.13 the New York City Draft Riots. Initially, the people were demonstrating against the first required conscription laws in the nation’s history. The federal government mandated these laws. Later, the riots grew into more violent actions against the rich people of the city, its African-American residents [which was unjust], and the principles of the Civil War itself. A majority of the rioters were Irish who felt marginalized from the city and did not want to serve in the war. These riots were a threat to the unity of the people in the nation’s largest city during the Civil War and caused divisions between the citizens in racial, social, and financial areas.
As the torrential rain pour finally stopped, rioters returned to the streets early on Tuesday, July 14, the second day of the riots, to rob and destroy businesses in downtown New York. The rioters destroyed the Brooks Brothers’ store, which had been producing governmental military uniforms for over two years. To keep the police away while they were destroying the city, the mob constructed barricades around the city and the police could not get through them. Two African American men were lynched in the ongoing vicious attacks. After a young black sailor spoke to a young white boy, the sailor was lynched. An older black man who dressed up in his wife’s clothes tried to leave New York for Boston and he was captured and killed, too. Other fatalities of the day included Col. Henry O’Brien, the commander of a local regiment, who was attacked and killed by the vicious rioters because he had tried to help the police officers.
Meanwhile, New York politicians argued on how to bring order to the city as the violence continued to spread. The Democratic governor, who had openly opposed the draft law before it went into effect, did not want to use force against the rioters. The city’s mayor, a Republican, realized there was a shortage of available police officers in New York so he asked the War Department to send in federal troops. However, he did not declare martial law himself, but he turned the situation over to federal officials to handle.
Troops were brought in on Wednesday, July 15, the third day of the riot, to help squash the uprising. Hoping to end the violence, New York Police Commissioner Thomas Acton and Harvey Brown of the New York National Guard made sure the key parts of the city were protected, including the area around City Hall, and northern outposts on the city’s east side, which allowed them to target the barricaded areas better. However, many other areas of the city were left susceptible to attacks. Officials made two key decisions that afternoon in hopes that the violence would stop. One was the passage of an emergency bill that would provide low-interest loans to New Yorkers who wanted to buy draft exemptions. Second was the announcement that the draft would soon be suspended. However, their efforts were too little too late and the riots spread to neighboring communities in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
City officials begged Catholic priests to get involved in hopes and speak to the crowds who were primarily Irish Catholics and try to get them to calm down. Archbishop John Hughes of St. Patrick’s Cathedral implored his parishioners to end the rioting, to no avail. Soon there after, more than 4,000 federal troops, who had just served in Gettysburg, arrived in the city to restore peace. Within hours, they faced off against rioters in the final clash of the New York City Draft Riots.
Estimates vary greatly as to the number of people killed in the Draft Riots, though most historians believe around 115 people lost their lives, including nearly a dozen black men who were lynched after being brutally beaten.14 Hundreds of buildings were damaged with millions of dollars in damage and about 50 burned to the ground. Thousands and thousands of blacks left the city after the riots and there were less than 10,000 that remained. This was the lowest black population since the 1820’s. Those who stayed relocated from their racially mixed neighbor-hoods to areas with a strong police presence or to the outskirts of the city.
In all, just 67 people were convicted for their role in the riots and they received minor sentences. One month later, New York City’s Civil War-era draft peacefully resumed and ended 10 days later. From the 80,000 men who were drafted from New York State, less than 2,400 of them actually entered the U.S. Army through the new draft. Many were exempt due to physical deferments, exemptions, and commutations. One group, however, willing went to serve on the battle field. In March 1864, the city’s first all-black volunteer regiment—1,000 strong—proudly marched through the same streets that had teemed with violence less than a year before.
Four days of riots, many hours of chaos, and buildings burned. It does not appear Americans have learned lessons from this time period because this type of civil unrest continues to happen today, though the reasons may be different.
to serve.4 However, rich men were allowed pay a $300 commutation fee, which allowed them to not serve in the
Civil War.5 This $300 was the equivalent of $5,500 in today’s money.
The Irish, one of the largest immigrant groups in New York, 6 felt they were being discriminated against because they had to serve in the Civil War. Because of their low wages, often less than $500 a year, the Irish were very upset by the federal provision allowing wealthy draftees to buy their way out of the Federal Army for $300. They simply did not have that kind of money. Because blacks were not considered American citizens during this time of history, they did not have to register for the draft. When the drawing of names began in New York on July 11, 1863, mobs of foreign-born workers, especially the Irish, stormed the city streets, assaulted residents, refused to listen to police orders, attacked draft headquarters, and burned buildings. Property damage eventually totaled
$1,500,000.7
In the month before the July 1863 conscription law, newspaper editors who wrote anti-war inflammatory articles inflamed the anger of the white working class. The corrupt editors focused on the working class -- primarily Irish immigrants -- to get them upset about having to serve in the war. The writers claimed the federal government was nosing into the city’s local affairs on behalf of the "n” war.8 Innocent blacks were strung up from lampposts, shot, and stabbed in retaliation for the conscription law. In addition, the leaders of the Democratic Party incited the working people of New York even further by saying their city was being overrun with Southern blacks because of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. Due to the city’s economic instability, Irish citizens and many others believed their jobs were in jeopardy because blacks were gaining power. From the time of Lincoln's election in 1860, the Democratic Party had warned New York's Irish and German residents to prepare for the freed slaves who would be coming north to take their jobs.
The first day of the draft, July 11, no residents were physically out of control and there were no signs of unrest from the troubled residents. However, officials started reading the conscripted lists of the men who would be serving and the rumblings began. People began protesting, though not aggressively -- yet. There was no rioting in New York on this day, though there was in other cities. Initial opposition had been focused on the draft itself, but the draft later turned into a racial issue. Many, including some of the men from the Black Joke Engine Co., spent the next several days combating the rioters and protecting the city’s citizens.
When city officials and a few police officers arrived at the city’s Provost Marshall’s office on the July 13, they were confronted by about 500 agitated, armed men. This was the first day of the New York Draft Riots. A volunteer fire company, known as Black Joke Engine Co. No. 33, arrived a few minutes after the draft started. They were hot that their chief had been chosen. These rowdy men were famous for their fire-fighting and fist-fighting skills.9 These fire fighters and others started breaking the building’s windows and forced their way inside.
After breaking in, they destroyed much of the draft equipment as local officials fled the scene. The protestors were growing in numbers and were spreading throughout across the city.
The Irish ended up using New York’s blacks as scapegoats for all of the grievances and hard feelings they had. As a result, the homes of many innocent blacks were destroyed and many lost their lives. The out-of-control Irish stormed an orphan for black children called A Colored Orphan Asylum, which housed more than 600 children.10 The majority of the rioters were women and children who entered the premises, and ransacked and plundered the building from cellar to rooftop. A 10-year-old little girl named Jane was killed by flying furniture.11 Other items from the orphanage were tossed out of the upper windows. Members of the angry mob even stole items from the orphanage, including outfits for little babies. In an attempt to stop the angry mob, the headmaster of the orphanage put a flag of truce out on the sidewalk. The angry mob paid no attention to it and kept on destroying the property.
As the 2,000 out-of-control demonstrators were trying to set the orphanage on fire, Chief Engineer Decker stood on the steps of the orphanage’s entrance and begged them to stop. He did not want them to “burn a benevolent institution, which had for its object nothing but good.”12
The mobsters wanted to burn the building and murder the children, which Decker said would be a lasting disgrace to them and to the City of New York. They burned the orphanage anyway.
After an hour and a half, the orphanage went up in flames. The children were then transferred to another facility and the orphanage was eventually rebuilt. On the second day of the draft lottery on July 14, 1863, more demonstrations were held in protest of the draft. The government’s attempt to enforce the draft in New York City was the catalyst behind the most destructive civil disturbance in the city’s history.13 the New York City Draft Riots. Initially, the people were demonstrating against the first required conscription laws in the nation’s history. The federal government mandated these laws. Later, the riots grew into more violent actions against the rich people of the city, its African-American residents [which was unjust], and the principles of the Civil War itself. A majority of the rioters were Irish who felt marginalized from the city and did not want to serve in the war. These riots were a threat to the unity of the people in the nation’s largest city during the Civil War and caused divisions between the citizens in racial, social, and financial areas.
As the torrential rain pour finally stopped, rioters returned to the streets early on Tuesday, July 14, the second day of the riots, to rob and destroy businesses in downtown New York. The rioters destroyed the Brooks Brothers’ store, which had been producing governmental military uniforms for over two years. To keep the police away while they were destroying the city, the mob constructed barricades around the city and the police could not get through them. Two African American men were lynched in the ongoing vicious attacks. After a young black sailor spoke to a young white boy, the sailor was lynched. An older black man who dressed up in his wife’s clothes tried to leave New York for Boston and he was captured and killed, too. Other fatalities of the day included Col. Henry O’Brien, the commander of a local regiment, who was attacked and killed by the vicious rioters because he had tried to help the police officers.
Meanwhile, New York politicians argued on how to bring order to the city as the violence continued to spread. The Democratic governor, who had openly opposed the draft law before it went into effect, did not want to use force against the rioters. The city’s mayor, a Republican, realized there was a shortage of available police officers in New York so he asked the War Department to send in federal troops. However, he did not declare martial law himself, but he turned the situation over to federal officials to handle.
Troops were brought in on Wednesday, July 15, the third day of the riot, to help squash the uprising. Hoping to end the violence, New York Police Commissioner Thomas Acton and Harvey Brown of the New York National Guard made sure the key parts of the city were protected, including the area around City Hall, and northern outposts on the city’s east side, which allowed them to target the barricaded areas better. However, many other areas of the city were left susceptible to attacks. Officials made two key decisions that afternoon in hopes that the violence would stop. One was the passage of an emergency bill that would provide low-interest loans to New Yorkers who wanted to buy draft exemptions. Second was the announcement that the draft would soon be suspended. However, their efforts were too little too late and the riots spread to neighboring communities in Brooklyn and Staten Island.
City officials begged Catholic priests to get involved in hopes and speak to the crowds who were primarily Irish Catholics and try to get them to calm down. Archbishop John Hughes of St. Patrick’s Cathedral implored his parishioners to end the rioting, to no avail. Soon there after, more than 4,000 federal troops, who had just served in Gettysburg, arrived in the city to restore peace. Within hours, they faced off against rioters in the final clash of the New York City Draft Riots.
Estimates vary greatly as to the number of people killed in the Draft Riots, though most historians believe around 115 people lost their lives, including nearly a dozen black men who were lynched after being brutally beaten.14 Hundreds of buildings were damaged with millions of dollars in damage and about 50 burned to the ground. Thousands and thousands of blacks left the city after the riots and there were less than 10,000 that remained. This was the lowest black population since the 1820’s. Those who stayed relocated from their racially mixed neighbor-hoods to areas with a strong police presence or to the outskirts of the city.
In all, just 67 people were convicted for their role in the riots and they received minor sentences. One month later, New York City’s Civil War-era draft peacefully resumed and ended 10 days later. From the 80,000 men who were drafted from New York State, less than 2,400 of them actually entered the U.S. Army through the new draft. Many were exempt due to physical deferments, exemptions, and commutations. One group, however, willing went to serve on the battle field. In March 1864, the city’s first all-black volunteer regiment—1,000 strong—proudly marched through the same streets that had teemed with violence less than a year before.
Four days of riots, many hours of chaos, and buildings burned. It does not appear Americans have learned lessons from this time period because this type of civil unrest continues to happen today, though the reasons may be different.