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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2016
July 1863 was the turning point of the American civil Avar. Prospects of ultimate victory for the north improved greatly that month, when General Lee's thrust into Pennsylvania was repulsed at the battle of Gettysburg, and Vicksburg, last confederate stronghold on the Mississippi, fell after a long siege. Yet during the sultry week of 12 July 1863 the most violent race riots of American history took place in the streets of New York, touched off by enforcement of a conscription act which congress had passed four months earlier How many negroes were lynched by white rioters and their bodies borne away on the waters surrounding Manhattan Island can never be known. But between twelve and fifteen hundred white persons died in this civil war within a civil war, most of them slain by police and soldiers charged with quelling the upheaval.
If newspaper accounts, official reports, and other sources of information agree upon any point about the draft disorders, it is that almost all the participants were Irish. ‘The immediate actors in the late riots in this city, got up to resist the draft and to create a diversion in favor of the southern rebellion, were almost exclusively Irishmen and catholics’ , wrote Orestes A. Brownson, America's leading convert to the Catholic Church.
1 United States statutes at large, vol. xii, chap, lxxxv, pp. 731—7.Google Scholar Shannon, F A., The organization and administration of the union army, i. 304–7.Google Scholar
2 Stoddard, W. O., The volcano under the city, p. 293.Google Scholar As for property destroyed, the city later paid about $1,500,000 in indemnities for losses sustained during the riots. Stone, W L., History of New York city, p. 561.Google Scholar
3 Brownson, O. A., ‘Catholics and the anti-draft riots ’ in Brownson's Quarterly Review, 3rd New York series, iv. 385 (Oct. 1863).Google Scholar
4 References to the Irish composition of the riot mobs are too many to list, but typical statements are contained in Headley, J. T, The greatriots of New York, 1712 to 1873, including a full . account of the four days’ draft riot of 1863, PP.149, 165, 207–8, 253–4.Google Scholar
5 Irish American, 25 July 1863.
6 New York Herald, 17–18, 20, 22–5, 3O July, 6 Aug. 1863. New York Tribune, 15, 20–1, 25, 31 July 1863. New York Daily News, 18 July 1863.
7 Herald, 16–17, 29 July 1863. Tribune, 16–18, 20 July 1863. News, 18 July 1863. If the fatalities tabulated in the city inspector's Report for 1863 may be taken as a fair sample, 85% of those killed in the disorders came from Ireland. New York City Inspector, Report for 1863, p. 255. Likewise in other cities where anti-conscription trouble occurred in July 1863, in New Jersey, up-state New York, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Illinois, most of the opposition to the draft was shown by the Irish. United States War Department, The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the union and confederate armies, series 1, xxvii, pt 2, p. 935; series 3, iii. 490, 492, 510–11, 516, 531. Tribune, 17–18 July 1863. Herald, 17 July 1863.
8 A. P, Man Jr., A re-examination of the background of the Neiv York city draft riots, unpublished typescript in Columbia University Library, New York, pp. 118–50.Google Scholar
9 ‘ The new moral world’, 29 June 1844 (Owenite newspaper), In Commons, J. R. (ed.), A documentary history of American industrial society, ix. 60–1.Google Scholar Haynes, G. E., The negro at work in New York city, 67–8, 97Google Scholar Payne, A. A., ‘The negro in New York prior to 1860’, in Howard Review, i. 1–64 (June 1923).Google Scholar Spero, S.D. and Harris, A. L., The black worker, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar
10 Brownson, op. cit.. p. 401.
11 Fite, E. D., Social and industrial conditions in the north during the civil war, pp. 189–90.Google Scholar Spero and Harris, op. cit., pp. 197–8. Deputations to recruit dockers for the riot mobs had thoroughly canvassed the waterfront. Daily News, 15 July 1863. New York Weekly Caucasian, 18 July 1863.
12 United States Census office, Eighth census, 1860, pp. xxxi–ii.
13 Cole, A. C., Irrepressible conflict, 1850–1865. p. 132.Google Scholar
14 The New York state census of 1865 was not completely accurate, but according to that count, the population of New York city declined to 726,386 in 1865, including 161,334 Irish, while that of Brooklyn rose to 296,378. New York Secretary of State, Census of the state of New York, for 1865, PP. xxi–v, 130–1. There were 12,472 negroes in New York city in 1860. Census Office, Eighth census, pp. 335, 337.Google Scholar
15 Commons, J. R., Races and immigrants in America, pp. 64–7.Google Scholar
16 Flick, A. C., History of the state of New York, vii. 55–6.Google Scholar Irish American, 21 Apr. 1860.
17 Flick, op. cit., vii. 118.
18 Herald, 27 May, 1 June 1863.
19 Irish American, 21 Aug. 1861. Herald, 5 Sept. 1861.
20 Flick, op. cit., vii. 53–4.
21 Irish American, 31 Mar., 12, 19 May 1860.
22 Maguire, J. F, The Irish in America, pp. 214–36.Google Scholar Irish American, 19 May, 4 Aug. 1860.
23 Ibid., 11 Feb., 3 Mar., 9 June 1860.
24 Maguire, op. cit., p. 215.
25 Barnard, W F, Forty years at the Five Points, pp. 2, 4, 7–9.Google Scholar Brace, C. L., The dangerous classes of New York, pp. 195–6.Google Scholar Herald, 7 Nov. 1860; 14, 22, 24 Oct. 1861; 17 Oct. 1862.
26 Stokes, I. N. Phelps, The iconography of Manhattan Island, iii. 654.Google Scholar Herald, 10 June 1863.
27 City Inspector, Report for 1860, pp. 24–5.
28 City Inspector, Report for 1859, p. 14; Report for 1860, pp. 53–4; Report for 1861, pp. 23–6.
29 Report for 1859, p. 10.
30 Report for 1860, p. 35.
31 Report for 1859, p. 16; Report for 1860, pp. 13–14; Report for 1861, pp. 29–32.
32 Report for 1861, p. 176.
33 Report for 1863, P. 122.
34 Report for 1859, pp. 5–6; Report for 1860, pp. 52–3, 59; Report for 1862, p. 11.
35 Report for 1861, p. 20.
36 Report for 1860, pp. 19–20; Report for 1861, pp. 11–18.
37 Report for 1859, pp. 7–14; Report for l860, pp. 55–7; Report for 1861 pp. 21–3; Report for 1862, pp. 15, 20–3.
38 Maguire, , The Irish in America, pp. 281–91.Google Scholar Irish American, 31 Mar. 1860. Tribune, 11 July 1863. Barnard, Forty years AT five Points, pp. 4–7
39 Brace, , The dangerous classes of New York, pp. 64–5.Google Scholar
40 Barnes, C. B., The longshoremen, pp. 13ff.Google Scholar
41 Herald, 12 Oct., 1 Nov. 1860; 31 Oct. 1861. Maguire, op. cit., p. 287.
42 Herald, 13 July 1863.
43 Times, 17 July 1863. New York Committee of Merchants for the relief of colored people suffering from the late riots, Report, pp. 21–3.
44 Brace, op. cit., pp. 27–8.
45 Herald. 7 Nov. 1860; 4 Nov. 1861.
46 Stone, , History of New York city, pp. 467–8, 534Google Scholar.
47 Barnard, , Forty years at Five Points, pp. 3–4.Google Scholar
48 Census Office, Ninth census, 1870, p. 793.
49 Irish American, 11 Feb., 10 Nov., 1, 8, 15 Dec. 1860; 12, 19 Jan., 2, 16 Feb., 16 Mar., 6 Apr. 1861. Herald, 18 Oct. 1861. Flick, History of the state of New York, vii. 46–7
50 Nordhoff, C., America for free working men, pp. 7–8.Google Scholar
51 Harmon, J. H., Lindsay, A. G., and Woodson, C. G., The negro as a business man, p. 4.Google Scholar A. G. Lindsay, , ‘The economic condition of the negroes of New York prior to 1861’, in Journal of negro history, vi. 190–9 (Apr. 1921).Google Scholar Wesley, C. H., Negro labor in the United States, 1850–1925, pp. 75–7.Google Scholar
52 Quoted by Wesley, ibid., pp. 61–2.
53 Ibid., pp. 38, 77, 101.
54 Flick, op. cit., vii. 41–2. McNeil, G. B., The labor movement—the problem of today, pp. 112, 117–20.Google Scholar
55 Irish American, 22 Dec. 1860. Brownson, ‘ Are catholics proslavery and disloyal?’, in Brownson's Quarterly Review, 3rd New York series, iv. 372–3 (July 1863).
56 On German support of the Republican party due to its stand against the extension of slavery, see H. Schluter, Lincoln, labor and slavery, passim.
57 Brownson, , ‘Catholics and the anti-draft riots’, p. 404 Google Scholar. Myers, G., History of Tammany hall, p. 209.Google Scholar
58 Flick, op. cit., vii. 83.
59 Irish American, 29 Sept., 3 Nov. 1860. Brummer, S. D., Political history of New York state during the period of the civil war, p. 77 Google Scholar Luthin, R. H., The first Lincoln campaign, p. 213.Google Scholar Kelly was a Baptist whose father, said to have been active in the Irish independence movement in the late eighteenth century, came to the United States from northern Ireland.
60 Herald, 1 Nov 1860; 13, 20, 27, 31 Oct. 1861.
61 Brownson, , ‘Catholics and the anti-draft riots’, pp. 405–6.Google Scholar Bonham, M. L., ‘New York and the election of 1860', in New York history, xv. 126 (Apr. 1934).Google Scholar Brummer, op. cit, p. 96. Luthin, op. cit., pp. 3, 211–12.
62 Irish American, 2 June, 3 Nov. 1860; 12 Oct., 2 Nov. 1861; 17 Jan. 1863. Daily News, 16 June 1863.
63 Tribune, 4 Nov. 1862.
64 The Tribune also published the anti-slavery appeal which O'Connell addressed to catholics in America in 1843 : ‘ Every catholic knows how distinctively slave-holding, and especially slave-dealing, is condemned by the catholic church Nothing can be more distinct or more powerful than the pope's denunciation of that most abominable crime Once again, and for the last time, we call upon you to come out of the councils of the slave-owners—at all events, to free yourself from the participation in their guilt.’ Tribune, 31 Oct. 1862.
65 National Anti-slavery Standard, 16 May 1863. Tribune, 13 May 1863.
66 Ibid., 16 May 1863. Another such statement by Douglass may be found in the Tribune for 30 Apr 1863. In addition, see Clark, J. F, Present condition of the free colored people of the United States, pp. 5–6.Google Scholar
67 Herald, 1 Nov. 1862.
68 Ibid., 15 Mar., 19 June 1863. Tribune, 26 Mar. 1863.
69 Herald, 1 Nov. 1860. Flick, History of the state of New York, vii. 68–9. Myers, History of Tammany hall, p. 194. Alexander, D. S., Political history of the state of New York, ii. 324–5.Google Scholar
70 Flick, op. cit., vii. 64.
71 C. O'Connor, Negro slavery not unjust, passim. Irish American, 4, 11 Feb. 1860. P S. Foner, Business and slavery: the New York merchants and the irrepressible conflict, pp. 47–8, 162–4, 227–8.
72 Herald, 9 Oct. 1862. Tribune, 10 Oct. 1862. Irish American, 18 Oct. 1862. For other anti-emancipation speeches of O'Gorman, see ibid., 25 Oct. 1862; 7 Mar. 1863; also Tribune, 6 May 1863. O'Gorman had achieved great popularity among the Irish before the war as counsel for Colonel (later General) Michael Corcoran, who was court-martialled for refusing to parade the 69th (Irish-American) regiment of state militia in honour of the visiting Prince of Wales.
73 Herald, 7 Oct. 1861. Irish American, 12 Oct. 1861.
74 Two other Irish-American leaders whose opinions on slavery it publicized were George Francis Train and Judge Charles P Daly. Ibid., 19 July, 11 Oct., 8 Nov. 1862.
75 Ibid., 28 Sept. 1861; 15 Mar., 17 May 1862; 10 Jan. 1863.
76 Ibid., 5 July 1862.
77 See, for instance, the speech of John Cochrane, Democratic candidate for representative from the sixth congressional district. Herald, 9, 16 Oct. 1860.
78 Ibid., 22, 24 Oct. i860.
79 Greeley was the militantly anti-slavery editor of the Tribune.
80 Irish American, 17 Mar., 16, 23 June, 1 Sept. 1860; 8 Nov. 1862. Herald, 25, 31 Oct. 1860. Weekly Caucasian, 4 Apr. 1863. Rev. Lee, B. L., Discontent in New York city, 1861–1865, pp. 143–6.Google Scholar Differences among abolitionists on this score, particularly between Garrison and labor spokesmen, are treated at length in Schluter, Lincoln, labor and slavery, pp. 37, 40–7, 51–5, 59–64, 67–8, 70–1, 74–5, 113–22, 133–6. See also McNeil, The labor movement, pp. 112–3.
81 Irish American, 21 Jan. 1860; other comments to the same effect in ibid., 28 Jan., 4, 11 Feb. 1860. McNeill, op. cit., pp. 122–3.
82 Irish American, 30 June, 17 Nov. 1860; 26 Jan. 1861.
83 Ibid., 1 Dec. 1860. Note also ibid., 17 Nov. 1860.
84 Ibid., 22 Dec. 1860.
85 Ibid., 22, 29 Dec. 1860; 5, 19 Jan. 1861
86 Ibid., 16 Feb., 9 Mar. 1861.
87 Ibid., 30 Mar. 1861 See the account of St Patrick's Day celebrations in 1862, in ibid., 29 Mar. 1862.
88 Ibid., 20 Apr 1861
89 Herald. 21 Apr 1861 Irish American, 27 Apr. 1861
90 Herald. 7 Mar 1863. Tribune, 7 Mar 1863.
91 Herald, 19 June 1863.
92 Ibid., 21 Apr, 1861 Irish American, 27 Apr. 1861. O'Gorman later cooled in his attitude towards the war.
93 Herald, 30 Aug., 7 Oct. 1861; 19 June 1863. Tribune, 7 Aug. 1862. Irish American, 7, 21 Sept., 17 Oct. 1861
94 Ibid., 12 Oct. 1861. Herald, 7 Oct., 19 Nov. 1861.
95 Andrews, R. M., Archbishop Hughes and the civil war, pp. 12—16.Google Scholar
96 Herald, 10 Oct. 1861.
97 Irish American, 31 Aug. 1861 ; 12 July 1862.
98 Many articles and editorials on this subject in the following news papers are identical in argument and phraseology: Herald, 24–31 Aug., 4–5, 8–9, 11–14, 18–19, 22–3, 25–6, 28–30 Sept., 1, 7–10, 12–13, 15, 17–18, 22–5, 28–9, 31 Oct., 1–5, 7, 10, 13–19, 21–3, 26–7, 30 Nov., 2 Dec. 1861; 8, 19–20, 22 Oct., 3–5 Nov. 1862; 22 Feb., 1 Mar., 3, 6, 11, 15–16, 18 Apr., 1, 6–7 May 1863. Irish American, 25 May, 1, 15, 22, 29 June, 6 July, 24 Aug. 1861; 4, II Jan. 1862. Shannon, The organization and administration of the union army, i. 20.
99 Irish American, 15 June 1861.
100 Ibid., 1 June 1862.
101 Herald, 30 Aug. 1861.
102 Irish American, 11 May, 24 Aug. 1861 ; 10 May, 9 Aug., 27 Sept., 8, 15 Nov., 6 Dec. 1862; 7, 14, 28 Mar. 1863. Herald, 18 Sept., 24 Nov. 1861. Before the outbreak of the war, many bodies of militia had been formed by Irish Americans in New York, partly for this purpose. Irish American, 20 Oct., 3, 17 Nov. 1860; 19 Jan., 23 Mar. 1861.
103 Ibid., 25 May 1861.
104 Ibid., 18 Jan. 1862.
105 Ibid., 22 Feb. 1862.
106 Ibid., 29 Nov. 1862.
107 Ibid., 16 Aug. 1862. The prelate's Dublin speech was largely a plea for non-intervention by European powers in the American civil war In the course of it, however, he referred to Irish soldiers in the union armies, saying, ‘ The Irish have, in many instances, as I have the strongest reasons for knowing, entered into this war partly to make themselves apprentices, students as it were, finishing their education in this the first opportunity afforded them of becoming thoroughly acquainted with the implements of war (cheers).’
108 Schluter, , Lincoln, labor and slavery, pp. 137–42.Google Scholar Lee, Discontent in New York city, p. 82.
109 Herald, 10 Apr. 1861.
110 Ibid., 31 Oct. 1860.
111 Foner, , Business and slavery, pp. 208–23Google Scholar. Lee, Discontent in New York, pp. 8–12. C. Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln, the war years, i. 261–2. In the winter of 1860–61 southerners repudiated obligations to New York merchants estimated at between $150,000,000 and $2OO,OOO,OOO. The merchants had long known that secession of the southern states would entail such losses. They had therefore opposed abolitionist agitation as likely to produce secession.
112 Irish American, 15 Dec. 1860.
113 Ibid., 13 Apr. 1861.
114 Ibid., 6 Apr. 1861.
115 Ibid., 23 Feb. 1861.
116 Ibid., 9, 16 Feb., 20 Apr. 1861. This warning was contained in letters to people in Ireland written by the Rev. D. W Cahill, an Irish priest touring America, and published by the press in Ireland and the Irish American in New York.
117 Ibid., 25 May, 29 June, 13, 20 July, 21 Aug. 1861.
118 Ibid., 27 Apr., 24 Aug. 1861.
119 Ibid., 3, 10 Aug. 1861.
120 Herald, 24 Aug. 1861.
121 Archbishop Hughes later expressed the belief that to some extent the closing of factories in New York was a concerted action taken by employers to compel Irish catholic workers to enlist and thus to relieve the city of the presence of many foreigners. Ibid., 14 July 1863. Irish American, 25 July 1863. Metropolitan Record, 25 July 1863. But at a meeting of native-born mechanics in February 1863 it was complained that their employers had persuaded them to enlist and then filled their places with cheap foreign and negro labour. Weekly Caucasian, 14 Feb. 1863.
122 Herald, 19 Apr. 1861. Irish American, 4 May 1861.
123 Ibid., 27 Apr. .1861. Lee, Discontent in New York, p. 34.
124 Herald, 31 Oct. 1861; 22 May 1863. The war department's treatment of the Irish Brigade later greatly diminished Irish ardour for the war. Irish American, 14 Mar., 18 Apr., 23 May 1863. See Fish, C. R.. The American civil war: an interpretation (Longmans, 1937), p. 281 Google Scholar : ‘ Meagher's Irish brigade from New York was so slaughtered that many Irish believed it purposely sacrificed and were hardened into hostility to the war ’.
125 Ibid., 31 Aug. 1861. Lee, op. cit., pp. 62–5, 82–6. For other hardships of soldiers increasing their war-weariness, see ibid., pp. 41–62, 65–82.
126 An example of the adverse effect of this circumstance upon army morale is given in the Herald, 19 Nov. 1861