Introduction

Troy, New York in 1861. Section of "Map of Rensselaer County, New York" Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

The second year of the Civil War appeared to have no end in sight, and the draft produced a cauldron of civic unrest in Troy. The pressures of Federal soldier manpower requirements, coupled with the difficulties citizens on the home front were experiencing, exploded in resentment, anger, violence and destruction on a hot summer day. The draft riot in Troy appeared to ripple out from the one happening in New York City at the time. Opposition to the draft was clearly a trigger of the Troy draft riot. Yet, closer examination reveals a combination of factors, including underlying class, labor, political, racial and ethnic tensions that exploded in the draft riots.

This image, published in Harper's Pictorial History of the Civil War (v. 2, p. 653), depicts the attempted entry and vandalism of the offices of the New York Tribune newspaper. On the first evening of New York City's draft riot, July 12, 1863, a mob of several hundred rioters attempted to destroy it. A squad of about 100 policemen were successfuly able to prevent it. The New York Tribune was owned by the notorious Republican Horace Greely. Inside were men with rifles positioned at numerous windows. However, they had been supplied with the wrong caliber ammunition, and so the guns were useless. The crowd apparently did not know about the mismatched guns and ammo. While this image depicts an event in New York City, a similar but successful destruction of a Republican newspaper, the Troy Daily Times, happened 180 miles to the north in Troy, New York.