RIOTS IN NEW YORK, BOSTON, ETC. 



817 



quelling the disturbance ; but a cro-wd linger- 

 ed in the vicinity of the scene, and increased as 

 night approached, and the military authorities 

 thought it best to order out the Lancers, the 

 llth battery (Capt. Jones), the 44th regiment, 

 three companies from Fort Warren, a company 

 of regulars from Fort Independence, and a 

 squad of the second cavalry from Readsville, to 

 check the riot which was believed to be im- 

 minent. The entire police force was also placed 

 on duty, and stationed at points where difficul- 

 ties were most likely to occur. About 8 p. M., 

 a crowd of 'men and boys, estimated at from 

 500 to 1,000, gathered in front of the armory 

 of the llth battery, in Cooper street, and al- 

 though warned off by Captain Jones, the com- 

 manding officer, threw a shower of stones and 

 bricks at the building, breaking the windows 

 and the door, and wounding several of the sol- 

 diers. The mob then attempted to carry the 

 building by storm, and had succeeded in forcing 

 an entrance, when a gun loaded with canister 

 shot was fired into them with terrible effect, but 

 they did not break and run until a bayonet 

 charge was made upon them. Six or eight 

 persons were killed on the spot, and a large 

 number wounded. Simultaneously with the 

 attack on the armory a mob of several hundred 

 persons broke into the gun store of Thomas 

 P. Barnes, in Dock Square, and carried away 

 about a hundred muskets and a large quantity 

 of pistols and bowie knives. They next made 

 a rush at the gun store of Wm. Read and Son, 

 Faneuil Hall Square, but the police had receiv- 

 ed information of the intended attack, and were 

 on hand in time to repel it. One of the rioters 

 was shot by the police, and a few others were 

 slightly injured. The formidable array of mili- 

 tary and police, and the promptness with which 

 they had quelled disturbances thus far, seemed 

 to frighten the rioters at this stage of opera- 

 tions, and they gradually dispersed. The only 

 other riotous incident of note during the night 

 was an attempt to set fire to the armory in 

 Cooper street, in the absence of the guard. The 

 fire was soon discovered and extinguished, with 

 but little loss. This was the only riot of any 

 importance in Boston during the year. 



At Portsmouth, N. H., there was some 

 trouble on the day of drafting. v An excited 

 throng of men, women, and children, gathered 

 about the provost-marshal's office, which was 

 in charge of volunteers from Fort Constitution, 

 and U. S. marines from the navy yard, under 

 command of Col. Marston. A large police force 

 was also in attendance, and instructed to dis- 

 perse the crowd. Two men who resisted were 

 taken to the station house. About 9^ P. M., an 

 attack was made upon the station house by 

 about 100 friends of the arrested parties, but 

 was repelled by the small force of police then 

 on the ground. A squad of soldiers from the 

 provost-marshal's office was sent to their assist- 

 ance, and charged upon the mob with bayonets, 

 dispersing it instantly. Two of the police and 

 four of the rioters were wounded, but none re- 

 VOL. in. 52 A 



ported killed ; and there was no farther ob- 

 struction of tHe draft in Portsmouth. 



A disturbance which threatened at one time 

 to assume formidable proportions occurred in 

 Holmes county, Ohio, in June. It appears that 

 on the 5th of that month, Elias Robinson, an en- 

 rolling officer, was stoned out of Richland town- 

 ship by a party of men, of whom the names of 

 four were known. Captain Drake, the pro- 

 vost-marshal of that district, went with a posse 

 of men to the village of Napoleon, in the above- 

 named township, to arrest those persons, and 

 found them in the upper story of a house, arm- 

 ed and ready for resistance. They refused to 

 surrender, saying that they would not consent 

 to be tried by court-martial. On the promise, 

 however, that they should be tried by the U. S. 

 court at Cleveland, they gave themselves up, 

 and the party started for Wooster. On the 

 way they met a party of fifteen or twenty arm- 

 ed men, friends of the prisoners, who were ap- 

 parently designing to rescue them. But when 

 Greiner, one of the arrested persons, informed 

 them that they were going voluntarily to Cleve- 

 land for trial, the armed men were satisfied, 

 and dispersed. Other armed parties were soon 

 after met, and satisfied with the same expla- 

 nation, and disappeared. But before Captain 

 Drake had succeeded in getting his prisoners 

 beyond the limits of Holmes county he was 

 overtaken by an armed force of 150 men, who 

 ordered the prisoners from the wagons, took 

 revolvers from several of Captain Drake's men, 

 and surrounding Captain Drake with a score of 

 rifles pointed at his breast, demanded that he 

 should take an oath never to enter Holmes 

 county on such business again, on penalty of 

 death. It is said that he refused to take the 

 oath and also to give up his pistols. The res- 

 cuers finally let him and his posse go, and car- 

 ried the prisoners back to their homes. On the 

 12th and 13th the enrolling officers were also 

 driven out of two of the townships of Holmes 

 county. 



These facts having been reported to the 

 United States authorities, Colonel Parrot, pro- 

 vost-marshal of the State, was ordered to call 

 out troops and suppress the insurrection. About 

 600 soldiers, infantry, cavalry, and artillery, 

 were at once sent up to Holmes county, under 

 command of General Mason. Previous to their 

 departure, Governor Tod addressed the follow- 

 ing letter to the commandant : 



THE STATE OF OHIO, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMEirr, ) 

 COLUMBUS, Junt 16th, 1863. ) 



Brig. -Gen. Mason, Present : 



Learning that you are about to send a military force 

 to Holmes county, for the purpose of arresting a body 

 of armed men who are there assembled to resist the ex- 

 ecution of the laws of the United States, I have to re- 

 quest that, before firing upon the party, you send for- 

 ward, under a flag of truce, the enclosed appeal or pro- 

 clamation I have made to them. If, in obedience to 

 my admonition, the party shall promptlv offer to dis- 

 perse, that you permit them to do so. Of course, I do 

 not wish, in the slightest degree, to interfere with the 

 performance of any military duty committed to any of 

 your officers before this assemblage took place. Should 



