prehending any danger,
recommenced the draft in the presence of a great multitude, many
of whom had crowded into his office, and a few names had been called
and registered when a paving-stone was hurled through a window,
shivering the glass into a thousand pieces, knocking over some
quiet observers in the room and startling the officials. This was
the initial act of the celebrated New York riots. A second and a
third stone now crashed through the broken window at the fated
officers and reporters, and with frantic yells the crowd developed
into a mob, and, breaking down the doors, rushed into the room,
smashed the desks, tables, furniture, and destroyed whatever could
be found. The wheel alone was carried upstairs and eventually
saved. The Marshal escaped alive, but his deputy, Lieutenant
Vanderpoel, was horribly beaten and taken home for dead. The
building wherein the office was located was fired, and the hydrants
were taken possession of by the mob to prevent the Fire Department
from extinguishing the flames, and in two hours an entire block
was burned down. Police Superintendent Kennedy was assailed by
the rioters and left for dead. The most exaggerated rumors of the
success of the mob spread through the city, and other anti-conscript
bands were rapidly formed, especially in its southern parts.

While General Sanford of the State Militia, Mayor Opdyke of the
city, and General John E. Wool were hastily consulting, and, in
the absence of any military force adequate to suppress the already
formidable riot, were trying to devise means for its suppression,
the mob, joined by numerous gangs of thieves and thugs, grew to
the size of a great army, and feeling possessed of an irresistible
power, moved rapidly about the apparently doomed city, engaging in
murder, pillage, and arson. Neither person nor property was
regarded. Peaceful citizens were openly seized, maltreated, and
robbed wherever found. Those who tried to resist were often dragged
mercilessly about the streets, stamped upon, and left for dead.
A brown-stone block on Lexington Avenue was destroyed. An armed
detachment of marines, some fifty strong, was sent to quell the
riot. At the corner of 43d Street these marines attempted to
disperse the mob by firing on it with blank cartridges, but they
were rushed upon with such fierce fury that they were broken and
overpowered, their guns were taken from then, several of them
killed, and all terribly beaten.