The laborers and poor, mostly foreign born and predominantly Irish Catholics, looked upon the conscription act as an attempt to force poor men to fight a rich man's war. They were also in no mood to die in the South for the freedom of people that were competing with them for jobs. The political powers in New York City were Democratic Southern sympathizers and the Tammany city government voted to pay the $300 fee for anyone who might be drafted.

The four day riot that began on the morning of July 13, 1863, started out as a violent protest against the draft but by evening had taken an anti black and anti Protestant turn. Wide spread looting began led by the Five Points Gang, the Roach Guards, the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys. At least three black men were hanged before sundown. For the next three days the sight of mutilated black bodies hanging from lamp posts was a common sight throughout the city. The blacks were beaten with clubs, slashed with knives and then turned over to the women and children.

The women were the most ferocious element in riots until the twentieth century. They followed the men pouring oil into the knife wounds and setting the bodies ablaze. They would then dance around the human torches singing obscene songs and telling jokes. The children would strip the corpses clean of clothes and jewelry. Mobs of between 50,000 to 70,000 persons stormed across Manhattan looting stores, burning buildings and beating blacks and abolitionists. The mob seized the Second Street Armory, stripped it of the weapons stored there, and then fired the building. Three police stations were burned.

Over 100 buildings were totally burned and more than 200 damaged. Catholic elements in the mob took advantage of the situation and burned Protestant churches freely. No catholic churches were damaged. The "No Draft" signs were joined by "Down with the Protestants". Signs with Popish sentiments also appeared.

Patrolman George Rallings managed to evacuate the orphans from the Negro Orphanage at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue with the exception of one little girl that hid under a bed and was overlooked. The mob axed her to death and fired the building. Fire fighting was hampered by many fire companies joining the rioters and the others were less than enthusiastic about fighting fires during a riot. The only thing that saved New York from complete destruction by fire was a violent thunder and lighting storm which extinguished the fires about 11 o'clock in the evening.

Colonel H.J. O'Brien of the Eleventh New York Volunteers was captured by the mob. A rope was tied around his ankles and he was dragged back forth over the cobblestones until a Catholic priest stopped the torture long enough to administer last rites. O'Brien was then tortured for three more hours. He was slashed with knives and had stones dropped on him. He was then allowed to lie in the broiling summer sun until sundown when a new mob resumed the torture. Finally, he was dragged to his own back yard where Five Points Gang women squatted around him and slowly sliced him with razor sharp knives until he was dead.

Three blacks were cornered on a rooftop in New Bowery and the building set afire. The men clung to the gutters by their fingertips while the mob chanted for them to fall. They were stomped to death by the mob when they fell.

The mob attacked Horace Greeley's pro draft New York Tribune and set the offices on fire. Greeley was forced to flee and hide under a table in a Park Row restaurant. The newspaper was retaken by a police assault and the flames extinguished. The following day 100 Marines and sailors occupied the newspaper offices armed with Gatling guns and a howitzer.

New York troops, including the 7th Regiment, were recalled from Gettysburg. The cadets from West Point were called out and the city filled with military and police forces. The Democratic politicians, attempting to embarrass a Republican mayor and president, demanded that the police and troops be withdrawn from their districts because they were "killing the people".

Overall casualties of the riot are estimated at 2,000 dead and 8,000 wounded. Military casualty figures were not released but are estimated at 350. Property damage is estimated at $5,000,000 in 1863 dollars. The number of blacks lynched is estimated at 88. Virtually every member of the police force suffered some sort of injury.

The draft in New York was investigated by a Democratic-dominated commission supported by Lincoln. Only 20 men were brought to trial and nineteen were convicted and sentenced to an average of five years in prison. No one was convicted of murder.

The draft was calmly resumed in August and anyone that could not come up with $300 was sent to die in Dixie.

The Five Points Gang was the last great pre-Prohibition gang in New York City and was still in business in the twentieth century. Distinguished alumni include Al Capone, Lucky Luciano and Frankie Yale. The Bowery Boys were mainly native American (English Protestant) Weekend Warriors until the War Between the States. They held jobs during the week and almost all were volunteer firemen. They voted early and often and campaigned with blackjacks in hand.

They splintered into smaller groups after the Draft Riots and became involved in illegal pursuits. The Dead Rabbits faded away in the 1870's. The Roach Guards did not survive the War Between the States.

The Mother of all Rumbles which occured on July 4, 1857, when the Plug Uglies and the Dead Rabbits accompanied by several other Five Points Gangs marched into the Bowery to do battle with the Bowery Boys and the Atlantic Guards is, if course, another story.