The Troy Draft Riot Begins

Albany Iron Works and Troy Iron and Nail Factory.jpg

Detail of Ward 6, the southern part of Troy, depicted on the 1861 "Map of Rensselaer County, New York." This depicts the Albany Iron Works and the Troy Iron and Nail Factory. About 400 workers from these factories went on strike and marched in protest up Fourth and River Streets, getting up to 2,000 workers to join in.

On Tuesday, July 14^th of 1863, the Troy draft riot began. This phase of the riot was a protest march and worker’s strike. The progenitors were workers from both the Troy Iron & Nail Factory and the Rensselaer Iron Works. A crowd of around four hundred employees moved up Fourth Street to the northern part of the city. Others joined in along the way, either through persuasion or intimidation - the crowd impressed other workers from other factories to join in. The intent of these working class demonstrators was to demonstrate their opposition to the Civil War draft. They were concerned that forced conscription into the military would have an adverse effect upon their livelihoods. Troy had already contributed many soldiers to the war effort, and those at home suffered from the absences and deaths of these men. The crowd moved north on River Street to the neighboring city of Lansingburg.

Rensselaer Ironworks and Clinton Stove Foundry.jpg

Rensselaer Iron Works and Clinton Stove Foundry, Ward 9, Troy, New York. Detail from the 1861 "Map of Rensselaer County, New York." Workers form the Iron Works joined in the strike and marching protest that initiated the Troy Draft Riot.

Some members of the mob became more expressive and intent on perpetuating vandalism and violence. Some members were brandishing clubs and threating passersby characterized as “citizens who had patriotically supported the administration in carrying out the war.” Around one o’clock in the afternoon, the increasingly loud and boisterous crowd returned south to the building at 211 River Street that housed the Troy Daily Times newspaper. By this time, the mob was estimated to be around two thousand people. Several prominent citizens spoke to the crowd, imploring them to refrain from vandalism and violence. A Republican newspaper, it had printed several scathing criticisms about the worker's unions in the years leading up to this riot. They considered the paper an enemy of their workers union, and took the opportunity occasioned by the draft riot to strike a blow back at it. The windows and doors of the Troy Daily Times were vandalized with clubs and stones. A few of the rioters made entry and threw everything movable out into the street, including type, stands, paper, twine, desks, cases and furniture. The contents of the files were taken down and thrown into the Hudson River. The printing presses and engine were destroyed. All of this occurred in about a twenty-minute period.

Under an 1855 statute, the city was to assume responsibility for property damage, which to that point consisted of about $5,000. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, the workers from South Troy, then numbering around 800, returned south.

19th Century prisoners in New York City. The prisoners "liberated" from the jail in Troy likely had a similar look.

Other members of the crowd apparently heard or circulated a rumor that members of the mob had been arrested and jailed. So, some of the crowd relocated to the jail to "liberate" the imprisoned. These rioters were able to successfully storm and take control of the jail, freeing eighty-eight of the white prisoners. Among the released were four persons indicted for murder! One of the murderers later turned himself back in. Three additional prisoners in the jail were black, but the mob did not release them. After about a half an hour, the situation there became subdued. After the “liberation” of the jail, members of the mob relocated to several other locations, apparently intent on undertaking vandalism, and racial and ethnic violence.