A squad of the police attempted
to arrest some of the leaders at this point, but it was defeated,
badly beaten, and one of its number killed. Elated with these
triumphs, and excited by the blood already spilled, the passion of
the mob knew no bounds, and it proposed an immediate onslaught upon
the principal streets, hotels, and public buildings. The city was
filled with consternation; all business ceased, public conveyances
stopped running, and terror seized the public authorities as well
as the peaceful citizens.

The negroes seemed to be the first object of the mob's animosity;
public places where they were employed were seized, and the colored
servants there employed were maltreated, and in some instances
killed. The Colored Half-Orphan Asylum, on Fifth Avenue, near 43d
Street, the home for about 800 colored children, was visited, its
attendants and inmates maltreated, the interior of the building
sacked, and in spite of the personal efforts of Chief Decker, it
was fired and burned. Robbery was freely indulged in, and many
women who were of the rioters carried off booty.

The armory on Second Avenue, in which some arms and munitions were
stored, although guarded by a squad of men, was soon taken possession
of, its contents seized, and the building burned. This was not
accomplished until at least five of the mob were killed and many
more wounded by the police. In the lower part of the city the
assaults of the rioters were mainly upon unoffending colored men.

At least one dozen were brutally murdered, while many more were
beaten, and others driven into hiding or from the city. One colored
man was caught, kicked, and mauled until life seemed extinct, and
then his body was suspended from a tree and a fire kindled beneath
it, the heat of which restored him to consciousness.

A demonstration was made against the _Tribune_ newspaper office.
The great mob from the vicinity of 46th Street reached the park
near this office about five o'clock in the evening, and some of
its leaders, breaking down the doors, rushed into the building and
commenced destroying its contents, and preparing to burn it. A
determined charge of the police, however, drove them out, and the
building was saved.

The police, though heroic in their efforts to protect the city,
were only partially successful. The draft was suspended. The
building on Broadway near 28th Street, in part occupied as an office
by Provost-Marshal Marriere, was fire