"The affair on Monday last bore a closer resemblance to a European riot than anything we have ever had here. The leaders and principal actors in the affair were boys - beardless youths of fifteen to eighteen. Behind these, and seemingly operating as a mere reserve force, was a body of men - operatives in foundries and factories, laborers, stablemen, etc., - who did the murdering of policemen, the gutting of houses, the firing of dwellings, etc., after the boys had opened the battle with volleys of stones. In all the crowds there was a sprinkling of women, not young, but married women, who were probably roused to fury by the fear of having their husbands taken from them by the draft...
[The rioters] denounced Mr. Lincoln as a reckless and imbecilic tyrant. They denounced the war as a needless, fratricidal, and abolition war."
- from Amazon
