"You Can't Imagine
the Indignation..."
"The New York riot is causing quite as much excitement among us, as our doings at Gettysburg could have done among you," wrote Lt. Sebastian Duncan, Jr. to his sister on July 17, 1863. Duncan, a member of the 13th New Jersey Infantry, was referring to the riots that rocked New York City from July 13 to 17, 1863. Less than two weeks after experiencing the bloodiest battle of the Civil War at Gettysburg, Duncan and his comrades of the Army of the Potomac were amazed at the violent civil disorder that had exploded in New York City. For three long days an estimated 50,000 rioters took to the streets, leaving more than 100 killed, hundreds more wounded, and approximately $1.5 million in damage. It was the worst riot in United States history.
As in the 1960s, the American Civil War in the 1860s produced great civilian unrest and social discontent. The draft riots in New York disrupted the Army of the Potomac in two ways. First, civilian dissent undermined political support for the war and sapped soldier morale. Second, and most directly, many combat troops found themselves reassigned to rear areas to suppress the civilian violence.
The riot was sparked by the North's first military draft, one of the many controversial wartime policies instituted by the Lincoln Administration. Many of the rioters were recent Irish immigrants relegated to the city's lowest paying jobs and faced with widespread discrimination. Richer men could evade the draft by paying a $300 commutation fee or by hiring a substitute. Cries of "Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Fight" filled the streets and the columns of Democratic anti-war newspapers.
None of these complaints sat well with the soldiers of the Army of the Potomac, who saw the riots as a stark betrayal of the cause for which so many had risked life and limb. (With the memory of Gettysburg's carnage still fresh, news of civilian unrest seemed sure proof of the public's indifference to their deeds and sacrifices. Lt. Duncan expressed his disgust in a letter home, writing, "You can't imagine the indignation which seems so universal among the men…."
Walter Carter, 22nd Massachusetts, vented his anger toward the rioters in a July 16 letter home, "…how disgraceful it is, and if you only knew the feeling it has created in the Army of the Potomac. We are mad with rage to think they should give our enemies encouragement in this, their day of defeat, and of our triumph."
Many soldiers wanted to punish the rioters personally. Lt. Edward P. Geary, Battery E, 1st Pennsylvania Artillery, wrote, "I wish they would send our battery [to New York]. I could fight such traitors better than those we have been fighting." Of the troops sent to quell the New York violence, Carter said, "…they carry with them the heartfelt good wishes of the Army of the Potomac for a triumphant success. If they but carry out our sentiments, every traitor in New York City will be shot."
Though order in the city was restored by July 18, and the draft was resumed on August 19, many Union soldiers never forgot nor forgave the rioters. Resentments between those who fight and those who oppose each of our wars have been a powerful current of American history.
