Posted on Aug 17, 2017
28th Wisconsin Regimental History: Civil War Draft Riots in Port Washington, Wisconsin
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I would like to point out one of the nuances of the Civil War caused by the extremely high casualty rates led some people to riot against the Draft that Congress passed. It happened across the Union side in the Northern part of the Union there were Draft Riots as people did not want to fight in a unpopular war in which they also saw political influence playing a role in who got drafted and who did not. The largest Draft Riot took place in New York City in 1863 but they also happened across the Mid-West. There is a historical plaque on the site in Port Washington, WI explaining what happened but I attached a link as well so folks can read. It is important to point out the Civil War was not exactly the Crusade that some on the Left portray it to be now. The war was unpopular across the entire country North and South and there was dissent to the Civil War on both Northern and Southern sides. Camp Randall is the same Camp Randall where the UW Badgers now play football...........Go Badgers!
28th Wisconsin Regimental History: Civil War Draft Riots in Port Washington, Wisconsin
Posted from 28thwisconsin.com
Civil War
Racism
American History
Military History
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 4
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New York City Draft Riots...........the largest Civil Disturbance outside of the Civil War itself...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City_draft_riots
New York City draft riots - Wikipedia
The New York draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), known at the time as Draft Week,[3] were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of working-class discontent with new laws passed by Congress that year to draft men to fight in the ongoing American Civil War. The riots remain the largest civil and racial insurrection in American history, aside from the Civil War itself.[4]
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MSgt Gerald Orvis
If you want to learn more about the 1863 New York City draft riots, I recommend The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld by Herbert Asbury, first published in 1927 and, I believe, still in print. The book contains two complete chapters on the draft riots and the gangs' involvement.
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MSgt Gerald Orvis
The movie was a very loose adaptation of Herbert Asbury's 1927 book - very loose with facts, chronology and so forth. For example, "Bill the Butcher" wasn't killed in a gang battle in the Five Points neighborhood during the 1863 draft riots, he was shot down in a neighborhood saloon in the 1850's. The US Navy did not fire shipboard artillery into the slum areas to subdue the mobs - that work was done by the NYPD, the local militia and the US Army (regiments brought in from the front in Virginia) using field artillery and rifle fire. Putting down the riots took a week of hard fighting, and much was destroyed or looted. The major independent ethnic and political gangs did not go away after the riots, but persisted into the late 19th century, after which they seem to have descended into existing as minor gangs of criminal thugs prior to the emergence of the Mafia in the WWI period. Read the book - it's a fascinating read, especially if one has been to New York City. A lot of the 1863 action took place at or near places I used to visit when I went to the city to visit my daughter - something I never knew.
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SPC Erich Guenther
LCpl Arthur Forbes - OK that is interesting, I did not know some of that. I'll have to get the book.
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