812 



RIOTS IN NEW YORK, BOSTON, ETC. 



over the remains of the boxes connected with 

 the office. The wheel was taken up stairs and 

 eventually saved, but nothing else was spared 

 from absolute wreck. The marshal escaped 

 uninjured, as did the reporters ; but one of the 

 deputies, Lieutenant Vanderpoel, was badly 

 beaten and taken home for dead. Having de- 

 stroyed the material of the office, the enraged 

 multitude thought of an additional outrage, and 

 regardless of the women and children who oc- 

 cupied the upper portion of the house, sprin- 

 kled camphene upon the lower floor and set the 

 place ablaze. In two hours from that time the 

 ent : re block, of which this was the corner 

 building, was a pile of smoking brick and 

 mortar. At an early stage of the proceedings, 

 Chief Engineer Decker, of the Fire Department, 

 arrived, but the incendiaries had taken posses- 

 sion of the hydrants, and would not allow, the 

 engines to be worked. After much persuasion 

 and an exhibition of absolute heroism, Chief 

 Decker obtained permission to restrain the 

 flames from further devastation, but it was too 

 late to be of service. Police Superintendent 

 Kennedy was attacked by the mob and nearly 

 killed. 



In the meantime, word had been sent to the 

 lower part of the city, that the long threatened 

 resistance had been made, and that success 

 had crowned the efforts of the anti-conscrip- 

 tionists. The most exaggerated rumors ob- 

 tained ready currency, and while every one 

 from the mayor to the ward-constable stood 

 aghast, all business was suspended, and the voice 

 of trade was hushed. There were no troops in 

 the city, the militia regiments being nearly all 

 on duty in Pennsylvania ; the force in the sev- 

 eral forts in the harbor was small, and the 

 Navy Yard, at Brooklyn, could spare but a few 

 marines. While therefore Maj. -Gen. Sandford, 

 on the part of the State militia, Maj.-Gen. Wool, 

 on behalf of the General Government, Mayor 

 Opdyke, as the chief magistrate of the city, and 

 their several staffs, were "consulting," the 

 mob, whose proportions had attained the size 

 of an army, had resolved itself into a peregrina- 

 ting column of incendiaries, and was in the suc- 

 cessful pursuit of an uninterrupted career of 

 murder, pillage, and arson. No person was 

 cacred-from their touch, and before the day had 

 passed, gangs of thieves joined the crowd, and 

 availing themselves of the general disturbance, 

 reaped vast harvests of money and other desi- 

 derata, which they unblushingly took from the 

 pockets and persons of their proprietors. Sev- 

 eral members of the press, in pursuit of their 

 normal avocations, were maltreated and abused. 

 A noticeable case was that a reporter, then 

 of the "New York Times," who was surround- 

 ed by a set of ruffians on the corner of 46th 

 street and Third avenue. Without a moment's 

 parley, they robbed him of his watch, chain, 

 diamond pin, and wallet, knocked him down, 

 raised the cry of " Abolitionist I" and left him to 

 the tender mercies of the crowd. Supposing 

 him to be a spy, the rioters kicked and trampled 



^pon him, pulled him by the hair up and down 

 the streets, and only* let him alone when some 

 firemen interfered in his behalf. He was car- 

 ried to a neighboring engine-house, and barely 

 escaped being stoned to death by a second 

 crowd, which had gathered about the door, and 

 whose volleys of missiles broke every window in 

 the house. A fortunate incident attracted their 

 attention, and the wounded man was permitted 

 later in the day to retire. 



While the up-town mob was delighting it- 

 self in the destruction of a brown stone block 

 in Lexington Avenue, a detachment of ma- 

 rines, some fifty in number, with muskets and 

 blank cartridges, were sent to quell the riot. 

 Taking a Third avenue car, at the Broadway 

 junction, they started for 46th street. Infor- 

 mation reached the mob that the soldiers were 

 coming, and they prepared to receive them. 

 Tearing up the rails, they rendered it impos- 

 sible for the car to be drawn beyond 43d 

 street, and at that point several thousand 

 men, women, and children stood anxiously 

 waiting for the storming party of fifty. Many 

 of them, particularly the women, were armed 

 with pieces of thick telegraph wire, which they 

 had broken from the lines, and which, as will 

 be seen, they used with great effect. Such a 

 scene has rarely been witnessed ; the men were 

 sober and quiet, but malignant and fearful in 

 their aspect; the women, on the contrary, 

 were merry, singing and dancing; they cheered 

 their husbands, chatted gaily with bystanders, 

 and boasted of what should yet be done by 

 their brawny arms. As the car, containing the 

 marines, reached the centre of the block, the 

 lieutenant in command ordered the men to 

 leave and form in line. Small groups and gath- 

 erings of women and children greeted them 

 with hisses and derisive cheers ; to these they 

 paid no attention, but marched toward the 

 larger mob at the corner. The lieutenant call- 

 ed upon the crowd to disperse, but no further 

 notice was taken of the command than a sullen 

 refusal ; he then ordered his men to fire, which 

 they did, with blank cartridges, and of course, 

 with blank effect. The smoke had not cleared 

 away before the infuriated mob rushed with ven- 

 geance upon the little band, broke them into 

 confusion, seized their muskets, trampled them 

 under -foot, beat them with sticks, punched 

 them with the long wires, and laughed at their 

 impotence. Several of the marines managed to 

 escape into the side streets, but each fugitive 

 had his gang of temporary pursuers, and quite 

 a number were killed, while all were ter- 

 ribly beaten. From this moment the spirit 

 of the mob seemed changed. Besistance was 

 no longer thought of: attack was the watch- 

 word. A squad of police attempted to arrest 

 some of the ringleaders at this point, but they 

 were signally defeated, badly beaten, and 

 one of them was killed. Elated with this 

 triumph, excited by the spilled blood, and the 

 instinct of passion, the mob seemed beside 

 themselves, and proposed an immediate on- 



