New york during the civil war

Competition for jobs between Irish and black workers, already intense before the war, increased dramatically, and racial tensions mounted in work places and in working-class neighborhoods throughout the city. Among New Yorkers, African Americans and middle-class and wealthy Republicans tended to support abolition; most of the white working-class did not, fearing competition for jobs from thousands of newly emancipated slaves.

On January 1, , President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in the rebellious Confederate states. By summer , the Union army, which had been entirely white when the war started, began recruiting African-American soldiers, who would soon be fighting and dying to defend the Union and to destroy the institution of slavery. In late spring , Confederate forces, led by General Robert E.

Fear swept New York City; if the Confederate army prevailed at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, southern troops could potentially invade the defenseless city within a matter of days. All male citizens between twenty and thirty-five and all unmarried men between thirty-five and forty-five years of age were subject to military duty. The federal government entered all eligible men into a lottery. Those who could afford to hire a substitute or pay the government three hundred dollars might avoid enlistment.

Blacks, who were not considered citizens, were exempt from the draft. In the month preceding the July lottery, in a pattern similar to the anti-abolition riots, antiwar newspaper editors published inflammatory attacks on the draft law aimed at inciting the white working class. They criticized the federal government's intrusion into local affairs on behalf of the "nigger war. On Saturday, July 11, , the first lottery of the conscription law was held.

For twenty-four hours the city remained quiet. On Monday, July 13, , between 6 and 7 A. The rioters' targets initially included only military and governmental buildings, symbols of the unfairness of the draft.

Mobs attacked only those individuals who interfered with their actions. But by afternoon of the first day, some of the rioters had turned to attacks on black people, and on things symbolic of black political, economic, and social power. By the spring of , the managers had built a home large enough to house over two hundred children.

Financially stable and well-stocked with food, clothing, and other provisions, the four-story orphanage at its location on Fifth Avenue and Forty-Second Street was an imposing symbol of white charity toward blacks and black upward mobility. John Decker, chief engineer of the fire department, was on hand, but firefighters were unable to save the building.

The destruction took twenty minutes. In the meantime, the superintendent and matron of the asylum assembled the children and led them out toForty-Fourth Street. Miraculously, the mob refrained from assaulting the children. But when an Irish observer of the scene called out, "If there is a man among you, with a heart within him come and help these poor children," the mob "laid hold of him, and appeared ready to tear him to pieces.

Rioters tortured black men, women, and children. Throughout the week of riots, mobs harassed and sometimes killed blacks and their supporters and destroyed their property. Rioters burned the home of Abby Hopper Gibbons, prison reformer and daughter of abolitionist Isaac Hopper. They also attacked white "amalgamationists," such as Ann Derrickson and Ann Martin, two women who were married to black men; and Mary Burke, a white prostitute who catered to black men.

Near the docks, tensions that had been brewing since the mids between white longshoremen and black workers boiled over. As recently as March of , white employers had hired blacks as longshoremen, with whom Irish men refused to work. This early war bashing of heads between pro and anti-war was very much a New York thing. Not many other places in the country had mixed sentiments on the matter and were hardline for one or the other faction.

Yet New York City was important for the war effort, so there was no way it could be independent. Money, industry, and manpower all poured out from New York and into the hands of the Union government. Many regiments of the American military during the Civil War came from New York State, and much of that population came from the city. Twenty one percent of the men in the state would join the union army throughout the Civil War. Many of these regiments were formed communally, meaning there were Irish brigades, German brigades, French brigades, Italian brigades and Scottish highlander brigades.

The cultural diversity that could be found in different sections of the city could be found in the battlefields of the American Civil War. Irish soldiers carried green flags, emblazoned with Gold harps. Scottish regiments wore plaid pants, and every regiment with an ethnic background carried with it something that made it unique. Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth was a young New Yorker who by twenty-four had an accomplished career.

He had worked in law, which he learned from Abraham Lincoln, and drilled with a local militia in New York. When the war broke out in , he and his militia joined up, and his regiment was dubbed the 11 th New York Infantry.

He styled his soldiers after the French zouave soldier and dressed them in the bright and classy apparel. His regiment was comprised almost entirely of firefighters from New York City, young men who volunteered in their local fire brigades who sought glory in war.

However, they would be some of the first to learn that in war there is nothing to be found but death and a scarred generation. As the man who killed Ellsworth fired his next shot, Cpl. MacDougall Hospital at Fort Schuyler would become a leading war-time military hospital, and Davids' Island was a significant prisoner-of-war camp for captured Confederates. No actual Civil War battles were fought within the Empire State, although Confederate agents did set several fires in New York City as an act intended to terrorize the community and build support for the peace movement.

Confederate agents attempted to burn New York City on November 25, , and at least thirteen hotels, P. Fortunately, the combustible chemicals used by the agents did not work properly, and all of the buildings set on fire were saved with no lives lost.

In January , New York had nominally a force of 19, militia, but it possessed only about 8, muskets and rifles with which to arm this force, and the war department was in no condition to supply the deficiency, as former U. Secretary of War, John B. Floyd Virginia , had, with sinister motive, sent many thousands of muskets from the Watervliet arsenal to Southern points. The first organized unit to leave the state for the front lines was the 7th New York State Militia, which departed by train on April 19, , for Washington, D.

The 11th New York Infantry, a two-years' regiment of new recruits, departed ten days later. Elmer E. Ellsworth, who was killed in May during an armed encounter in Alexandria, Virginia. Space restricts more than a brief reference to some of the more famous fighting organizations, such as brigades and regiments, contributed by the State of New York. Perhaps the best known brigade organization was the Irish Brigade , officially designated as the 2nd brigade, 1st division, 2nd corps.

It was in Hancock's old division, and was successively commanded by Gen. Thomas Francis Meagher, Col. Patrick Kelly killed , Gen.

Thomas A. Smyth killed. Richard Byrnes killed , and Gen. Robert Nugent. It was organized in , and originally consisted of the 63d, 69th and 88th N. Its loss in killed and mortally wounded was , and a total of 4, men were killed and wounded. Fox in his "Regimental Losses in the Civil War," says of this brigade: "The remarkable precision of its evolutions under fire, its desperate attack on the impregnable wall at Marye's heights; its never failing promptness on every field; and its long continuous service, made for it a name inseparable from the history of the war.

Its losses in killed and died of wounds were In Harrow's 1st brigade, Gibbon's 2nd division, 2nd corps, was the 82nd N. Infantry Regiment. This brigade suffered the greatest percentage of loss in any one action during the war, at Gettysburg, where its loss was killed, wounded and missing out of a total of 1, in action, or 61 percent.

The loss of the 82nd was 45 killed, wounded, 15 missing — total, There were forty-five infantry regiments which lost over men each, killed or mortally wounded in action during the war, and six of these were New York regiments. At the head of the New York regiments, and standing sixth in the total list, is the 69th N. Coming next in the order named are the 40th, 48th, st, th and 51st regiments. Of the three hundred fighting regiments enumerated by Col.

Fox, fifty-nine are from New York. Fox, The 69th, for example, suffered During the conflict, while the New York unit that charged the parapet and captured the enemy's flag was romanticized and glorified, the 85th New York Infantry received barely a nod as disease killed " of its soldiers," according to Dyer According to Phisterer , the 85th lost to "disease and other causes. According to Dyer, The th New York Regiment aka 2nd Regiment, Eagle Brigade , meanwhile, suffered a total of in killed: 12 Officers and Enlisted men in killed and mortally wounded and 1 Officer and Enlisted men died from disease.

Out of more than 2, regiments that served with the Union Army, only five regiments lost more men than the 69th. When including total deaths during the course of the war, meaning additional deaths from disease, prisoners-of-war, and "other than combat related deaths," the 40th New York Infantry suffered the second greatest loss of any unit from the Empire State.

It lost men. Although numerous New York units suffered more than casualties during the conflict, the following figures indicate the state's greatest or highest regimental combat losses:. New York regimental combat losses aka battle or action losses by totals:. Total Dyer, According to Phisterer , the 69th, during its service, "lost by death, killed in action, 8 officers, enlisted men; of wounds received in action, 5 officers, 94 enlisted men; of disease and other causes, 2 officers, enlisted men; total, 15 officers, enlisted men; aggregate, ; of whom 1 officer and 63 enlisted men died in the hands of the enemy.

The 69th, according to The Union Army , lost " died from wounds and from other causes, 63 dying in prisons. During the th Regiment's time in service, total enrollment was 1, soldiers. Ten officers and men were killed and mortally wounded in battle. The total of men who were killed and died of wounds is only exceeded by four other New York regiments — the 69th, 40th, 48th and st. In the entire Union Army, that number is only exceeded by 24 other regiments.

It should be noted that 2 officers and 74 men died while in the confinement of Confederate prisons. Went to relief of 3rd Corps in afternoon; took this position that evening and held it to close of battle. Number engaged 8 companies Casualties: Killed 58, wounded , missing 14, total By mid-July , New York had organized and sent 8, men for three months' service; 30, two years' volunteers and 7, three years' volunteers — a total of 46, officers and men.

The disastrous First Battle of Bull Run , July 21, demonstrated that the war was to be a long one, and in July Congress authorized the president to accept the services of volunteers for three years. By the end of , New York had fielded , military volunteers. The State of New York continued its tremendous exertions in support of the Federal government and continued to supply both men and money with a lavish hand. The record of troops furnished for the year or up to the close of Gov.

Morgan's administration, is as follows: twelve regiments of infantry militia , for three months, 8, men; one regiment of volunteer infantry, for nine months, men; volunteers for three years, one regiment of cavalry, 1, men; two regiments, four battalions, and fourteen batteries of artillery, 5, men, and eighty-five regiments of infantry, 78, men; estimated number of recruits for regiments in the field, 20,; incomplete organizations still in the state, 2, men; total for , ,; total since the beginning of the war, , To obtain the full number of men furnished by the state, there should be added to the above, 5, men enlisted in the regular army, and 24, in the U.

Navy and Marines, making the total number furnished, , The sons of the Empire State were to be found in every important naval engagement throughout the war. That they paid the debt of patriotism and valor is attested by the fact that 1, perished in battle, from disease and from other causes incident to the service. The names of John Ericsson, John A.

Griswold and John F. Winslow, all of New York, are inseparably linked with the most important contribution to the navy during the war — the building of the Monitor — which worked a revolution in naval warfare. New York troops were prominent in virtually every major battle in the Eastern Theater, and some New York units participated in leading campaigns in the Western Theater, albeit in significantly smaller numbers than in the East.

More than 27, New Yorkers fought in the war's bloodiest battle, the three-day Battle of Gettysburg in July ; of these men were killed in action, with 4, wounded several of which died of their wounds in the months following the battle.

It was the largest number of casualties for New York troops in any battle. Among the scores of officers from New York to perish at Gettysburg was Brig. Samuel K. Zook, a long-time resident of New York City. Augustus van Horne Ellis was killed near the Devil's Den on July 2; he was later memorialized with the only full-sized statue of a regimental commander to be erected on the battlefield.

On May 5, , Clement L. Vallandigham, former Congressman of Ohio, was arrested as a violator of Union General Order Number 38, which forbade expressing sympathy for the enemy. Vallandigham's charges included saying two words: "King Lincoln.