troops to enforce it. Although a Republi-
can, Opdyke sided with the Democrats in
resisting such an extreme measure. He did
promise that he would reserve the military
option if conditions did not improve in the
coming days. Martial law, he later
explained, “would have exasperated the
rioters, increased their numbers, and those
in sympathy with them. The probable
result would have been the sacking and
burning of the city, and the massacre of
many [more] of its inhabitants.”
Displeased with the meeting’s outcome,
several members of the Union League
appealed directly to President Lincoln. A
telegram drafted by prominent citizens
George Templeton Strong, John Jay, Pro-
fessor Wolcott Gibbs, and James
Wadsworth read: “Our city having given
her militia at your call is at the mercy of a
mob which assembled this morning to
resist the draft and are now spreading fire
and outrage—several buildings in differ-
ent wards are in flames and the Timesand
Tribuneoffices are at the moment threat-
ened. New York looks to you for instant
help in troops and an officer to command
them and declare martial law. Telegraph
wires cut in all directions.” Receiving noanswer, they retired to a member’s home
on Gramercy Park to wait out what
promised to be a sleepless night.
The four men’s report of the threat to the
Timesand Tribuneoffices in Printer’s
Square east of City Hall was accurate.
Throughout the afternoon and early
evening, crowds had periodically gathered
in front of the buildings to protest the
newspapers’ support of Lincoln adminis-
tration policies. Horace Greeley, longtime
editor of the Tribuneand a supporter of
conscription, was a particular object of the
mob’s scorn. Although Greeley insisted
that the Tribunebuilding not be fortified,
his managing editor sent an associate to
Governor’s Island to bring back weapons
to repel any attacks. In the meantime, Tri-
bune staffers used bales of printing paper
to blockade entryways and windows.
The leadership at the New York Times
had none of Greeley’s qualms about forti-
fying their building. Henry Raymond, one
of the paper’s co-founders, secured three
Gatling guns from the army and set them
up in windows. Not surprisingly, a mob
led by a barber from the nearby Astor
House Hotel, who had also been at the 9th
District draft office that morning, electedto surround the less well-defended Tribune
offices. In the words of one witness inside,
the mob was “surging in black waves all
around the building,” creating a vision of
“total depravity, shouting, and hooting,
and yelling.”
Alerted that an attack was planned for
11 PM, Tribunestaff members began to
unpack the crates brought from Gover-
nor’s Island only to discover that the
ammunition did not fit the rifles. As zero
hour approached, “a gang of about three
hundred ruffians, mostly in red shirts,
shouting and yelling like fiends” streamed
from Broadway through City Hall Park
toward the newspaper building. “They
were clearly the fiery nucleus of the entire
riot,” a witness recalled. The rioters made
no secret of their chief target. “We’ll hang
old Greeley to a sour apple tree,” they
chanted. “We’ll hang old Greeley to a sour
apple tree, and send him straight to hell!”
Sidney Gay, Greeley’s managing editor,
urged the elderly abolitionist to sneak out
a back door. Refusing, the eccentric pub-
lisher marched out the front door of the
newspaper and, unnoticed by rioters,
walked calmly down the street to his
favorite eating place.
In any event, the rioters never reached
the Tribunebuilding. As the mob exited
City Hall Park, a squad of 110 policemen,
led by the indefatigable Carpenter, set
upon the rioters with clubs. So fierce was
the assault that one Tribuneeditor later
remembered hearing “the tap, tap of the
police clubs on the heads of the fugitives.”
Within moments, “those of the three hun-
dred who were not on the ground dead or
helpless, were fleeing wildly in all direc-
tions.” The police then set about success-
fully dispersing the crowds that sur-
rounded the building. The attempted
attack on the Tribunebuilding ended the
day’s violence, and a heavy rainstorm that
began shortly after 11 PMproved even
more effective in driving the rioters from
the streets. Throughout the rioting, the Tri-
bunenever missed an edition.
Tuesday, July 14, dawned as hot and
humid as the day before. By day’s end, the
sheer scale of the violence—the loss of livesBELOW: Some of the worst violence took place on the second day at the Union Steam Works at 22nd
Street and Second Avenue. A mob, which included many brick-throwing women, unsuccessfully
attempted to seize thousands of carbines stored in the building. OPPOSITE: When rioters attempted to
attack the offices of the New York Tribune,Inspector Daniel C. Carpenter led a force of 110 club-wield-
ing policemen to drive them off.Q-Spr16 NYC Draft Riots_Layout 1 1/14/16 12:27 PM Page 49