July 17, 1863---The Battle of Honey Springs

JULY 17, 1863:           

The Battle of Honey Springs, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) (The Battle of Elk Creek).        

As Confederate forces were pushed out of Arkansas, the Confederate forces (largely Cherokee) in Indian Territory found themselves increasingly isolated; after a string of Union victories, many Cherokee either deserted the Confederate cause or switched sides. In an attempt to reassert Confederate control of Indian Territory, a large contingent of 3,000 men (mostly Cherokee) challenged a Union contingent (mostly African-American and Cherokee) of the same size near the crucial Confederate supply depot on Elk Creek. The Confederates were poorly armed and provisioned, and despite attacking aggressively they were driven from the field with anywhere from 200 to 500 losses against 75 Union losses. Heavy rains kept Confederate muskets from firing, and several headlong charges turned into bloodbaths when the Cherokees couldn’t fire their weapons. The defeat meant that they lost their major supply dump in Indian Territory, and the Cherokee were reduced to relying on an ever-decreasing supply of captured Union weapons to carry out sporadic guerrilla attacks, effectively ending organized Rebel activity in Indian Territory.

July 16, 1863---The New York Draft Riots: Day Six

JULY 16, 1863:            

The New York Draft Riots (Day Six): 

Federal troops continued to arrive from outside the city. It now became dangerous for citizens going about their ordinary business to be out, as the troops made little distinction between rioters and ordinary pedestrians. Several persons were shot as the day went on. A non-violent “Peace Rally” was held outside of St. Patrick’s Cathedral at Noon, and the newspapers printed reports of the Draft having been suspended. A final confrontation occurred in the evening near Gramercy Park. Military firepower finally killed off and dispersed the remaining rioters.

Although called “riots” the Draft Riots were more than just riots. Contemporary accounts referred to what might more properly be called “The Battle of New York” as a “Confederate victory.” The city was ineradicably changed. Immediately following the Draft Riots most of New York City’s blacks fled to the City of Brooklyn and to New Jersey, allowing the poor white, mostly Irish, immigrants to fill their abandoned jobs; this gave the Irish a financial boost that allowed many of them to move out of poverty. For a week the nation’s largest city, its hub of finance and international trade, had been utterly shut down. Conscription had been suspended. Unionists and Abolitionists and newspapers had been successfully attacked. Free black citizens had been brutalized and butchered.

There is little doubt that, though most of the participants were mere ordinary working men and women with no grasp of the larger issues, these “riots” were organized quasi-military affairs. Throughout the city, rioters had set up a strategic system of barricades to keep first firemen and police and later troops from easily communicating and aiding each other. The gangs of New York, though their Five Points neighborhood had been mostly untouched by violence, had recruited many rioters from among the city’s poor white population. Blacks and Republicans were especial targets. The State and Federal Arsenals had been attacked in an attempt at seizure. The leaders of the various rioting mobs met and coordinated their activities, striking at specific targets at specific times planned to keep the civic authorities dispersed and under constant pressure. The Governor of New York State came from Albany to address the rioters en masse, reinforcing their cause. Whether this was a New York political in-fight or an urban insurrection against the United States, or both, one thing is clear: the Draft Riots were not a spontaneous eruption of mass hysteria, but a coldly calculated channeling of populist rage. 

Fortunately, after the violence ended New Yorkers responded well to the riots. Money was raised to aid those left homeless and injured, businesses received aid for repairs and rebuilding, and much of the anger underlying the Draft Riots seemed to have dissipated; when the Draft was resumed, it proceeded peacefully, and Copperhead sentiments in the city began to wane rapidly after the riots.

 

The number of killed and injured is unknown. Conservative estimates are that 150 people were killed (mostly blacks) and up to 8,000 injured.

July 15, 1863---The New York Draft Riots: Day Five

JULY 15, 1863:            

The New York Draft Riots (Day Five): 

Overnight, U.S. troops and New York State Militia, some recalled from Gettysburg where they numbered among the lightly wounded, began pouring into the city to restore order. While this caused many rioters to disperse, the more hard-core rioters attacked the troops, and gun battles raged in scattered areas of the city all day long. The troops sometimes used artillery to stop the mobs.

While this urban warfare went on, word was received from Washington that the New York City Draft was suspended until further notice. With the suspension, and it was believed, probable end of Conscription, the riot ran out of steam, and all but the most recalcitrant rioters dispersed.          

July 14, 1863---The New York Draft Riots: Day Four

JULY 14, 1863:            

The New York Draft Riots (Day Four):      

As the rains abated in the early morning hours, the rioters returned to the streets. It’s unknown precisely how many rioters there were at this point, but estimates are that 50,000 or more persons were directly involved.

On this second day of full violence, the mobs continued to target black people, many of whom had fled their usual neighborhoods overnight. The mob turned its rage on prominent Republicans and Abolitionists, whose houses were smashed open, looted and burned.

The unrestrained attacks on prominent white citizens finally motivated New York’s Four Hundred to do something to calm the violence. At Noon, New York State’s Democratic Governor Horatio Seymour addressed a large crowd of rioters at City Hall. Beginning the speech with, “My friends,” he then criticized the Government, claiming that Conscription was unconstitutional. This speech, meant to calm the mob, re-energized it, and the rioting continued unabated. Seymour was later branded a traitor for encouraging the mob.

Previously, Seymour had asserted of the Draft:  

"It is a high crime to abduct a citizen of this State. It is made my duty by the Constitution to see that the laws are enforced. I shall investigate every alleged violation of our statutes, and see that offenders are brought to justice. Sheriffs and district attorneys are admonished that it is their duty to take care that no person within their respective counties is imprisoned, or carried by force beyond their limits, without due process or legal authority."

In the late afternoon, cadet troops from West Point began arriving in the city.