The week of July 14, 1863 was a typically hot and humid week of New York summer weather. The 830,000 residents of the city suffered under the oppressively muggy weather.

The Civil War was dragging into its third year; just two weeks earlier, 215 miles away in tiny Gettysburg, PA, Robert E. Lee’s Army clashed with Union forces as Lee tried to invade the North. After two long and bloody years of war, the Union Army was about to lose 300,000 soldiers who were scheduled to return home.

With the war showing no signs of winding down, the Union had to find replacements for those soldiers and quickly. The Conscription Act of 1863 was passed and signed into law by Abraham Lincoln on March 3, 1863.

“A Rich Man’s War But a Poor Man’s Fight”

What would be the most consequential spark of Draft Riots the Conscription was the provision of the Conscription Act’s Section 13. In it, a man subject to the draft could pay a $300 fee for a replacement:

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That any person drafted and notified to appear as aforesaid, may, on or before the day fixed for his appearance, furnish an acceptable substitute to take his place in the draft; or lie may pay to such person as the Secretary of War may authorize to or may pay not receive it, such sum, not exceeding three hundred dollars, as the Secretary may determine, for the procuration of such substitute; which sum shall be fixed at a uniform rate by a general order made at the time of ordering a draft for any state or territory; and thereupon such person so furnishing the substitute, or paying the money, shall be discharged from further liability under that draft.

In an era when $300 represented more than twice the annual wage for most workingmen, this buy-out provision contributed to the perception of the Civil War as a “rich man’s war but a poor man’s fight.” Adding to that, a labor force already worried about a tenuous labor market facing the prospect of competition for scare jobs from the sudden appearance of newly-freed slaves for unskilled positions as laborers, teamsters, factory hand and the like, working-class New Yorkers of the time were unlikely to be persuaded of the benefits of enlisting or being drafted. Between March and July, tensions increased until the conscription process began in New York City on Saturday, July 11 with the names of eligible draftees being drawn from what came to be known as the “wheel of misfortune.”

On that Monday, the worst riot in American history began.