On the Monday morning of July 13, 1863, the "Enrollment
Act" (mandatory draft) takes effect, with exemption
for the wealthy, which led to summer draft riots in
New York and other major northern cities (Newark
& Jersey City, New Jersey; Toledo, Ohio;
Evansville, Illinois and Boston, Massachusetts). In
New York City, earlier in the month the Provost
Marshal for New York, Captain Joel B. Erhardt,
orders some able-bodied men that are erecting a
building to report for the draft. They attack him with
crow bars and force him to flee. Registration and
drafting had begun peaceably earlier in the month
at the Provost Marshal's Office, but on this date
thousands of workers do not report for work. Mobs
armed with clubs, knives and other weapons
converge on draft headquarters. As they converge,
they are joined by thousands of men and women
who leave work. Telegraph poles are knocked down
to disrupt communications. The police are swept
aside and the draft headquarters building is set on
fire. The mob goes wild, resulting in burning of a
Black orphanage, lynching, 3,000 Blacks
homeless, between 1,500 and 2,000 civilians dead
(many of them Black) and at least 8000 wounded or
maimed for life by a mob of at least 50,000. With
the police overwhelmed and the mayor's house
under guard, Colonel Fry brings over 100,000
regular troops to New York City, including the
entire 8th Indiana Infantry Regiment from
Gettysburg, to quell the riot in New York. One mob
assaults a platoon of soldiers and forces them to
take cover in a foundry. Reinforcements rescue
them by routing the mob with fixed bayonets. The
mobs begin smashing and looting stores. They are
pursued by soldiers who fall victim to musket fire
from the rooftops. Howitzers are rushed up and
fired into the mob. Eleven of the ringleaders are
killed. Troops battle in hand-to-hand combat in
stairwells and on rooftops. One out of every five
Black New Yorkers moves away after the riot.
Following the riot, not one Black worker showed up
for work on New York's docks. Of the hundreds
arrested, only 19 are convicted for their roles in the riot.
