My research is focused on the South which is why I am not discussing the problem of race in the North. That should not be taken as an attempt to make a moral claim about the South or attempting to vindicate the North.

The Draft Riots were one of the worst racial riots in American history, but it has nothing to do directly with the Crater, which is my subject. It is true that African Americans faced any number of challenges as soldiers in the US Army owing to their color. I do address some of this in my manuscript, but most of it is confined to how white Southerners interpreted and remembered the battle.

With all due, respect Racial issuse were not confined to the south.

Draft Riots 1863
An excerpt from
In the Shadow of Slavery:
African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863
by Leslie M. Harris

The rioters’ targets initially included only military and governmental buildings, symbols of the unfairness of the draft. Mobs attacked only those individuals who interfered with their actions. But by afternoon of the first day, some of the rioters had turned to attacks on black people, and on things symbolic of black political, economic, and social power. Rioters attacked a black fruit vendor and a nine-year-old boy at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street before moving to the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue between Forty-Third and Forty-Fourth Streets. In all, rioters lynched eleven black men over the five days of mayhem. The riots forced hundreds of blacks out of the city.

Not to disagree sir, just trying to show the whole picture !

Respectfully Submitted

David Tatum Jr.

I recently reread the Bowley account and after your comment yesterday decided to collect a few references for a post. You are spot on in contrasting his style and focus with Gordon.