George Henry Hall - A Dead Rabbit - 1858

The Dead Rabbits riot was a two-day

civil disturbance Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

evolving from what was originally a small-scale street fight between members of the

Dead Rabbits The Dead Rabbits was the name of an Irish American criminal street gang active in Lower Manhattan in the 1830s to 1850s. The Dead Rabbits were so named after a dead rabbit was thrown into the center of the room during a gang meeting, prompting s ...

and the Bowery Boys into a citywide gang war, which occurred July 4–5, 1857. Taking advantage of the disorganized state of the city's police force—brought about by the conflict between the Municipal and Metropolitan police—the fighting spiraled into widespread looting and damage of property by gangsters and other criminals from all parts of the city. It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 gang members took part in the riots, along with several hundred others who used the disturbance to loot the

Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. ...

area. It was the largest disturbance since the

Astor Place Riot Astor may refer to: People * Astor (surname) * Astor family, a wealthy 18th-century American family who became prominent in 20th-century British politics * Astor Bennett, a character in the Showtime television series ''Dexter'' * Ástor Piazzoll ...

in 1849 and the biggest scene of gang violence until the

New York Draft Riots The New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), sometimes referred to as the Manhattan draft riots and known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of white working-cl ...

of 1863. Order was restored by the

New York State Militia The New York Guard (NYG) is the state defense force of New York State, also called The New York State Military Reserve. Originally called the New York State Militia it can trace its lineage back to the American Revolution and the War of 1812. Th ...

, supported by detachments of city police, under Major-General Charles W. Sandford.

Events

On the evening of July 4, 1857, while the rest of New York was celebrating Independence Day, members of the Dead Rabbits led a coalition of street gangs from the Five Points (with the exception of the

Roach Guards The Roach Guards were an Irish criminal gang in Five Points neighborhood of New York City the early 19th century. The gang was originally formed to protect New York liquor merchants in Five Points and soon began committing robbery and murder. ...

with whom they had been fighting)Headley, J.T. ''The Great Riots of New York, 1712 to 1873, Including a Full and Complete Account of the Four Days' Draft Riot of 1863''. New York: E.B. Treat, 1873, pp 131–132 into

The Bowery The Bowery () is a street and neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The street runs from Chatham Square at Park Row, Worth Street, and Mott Street in the south to Cooper Square at 4th Street in the north.Jackson, Kenneth L. "Bo ...

to raid a clubhouse occupied by the Bowery Boys and the Atlantic Guards. They were confronted outside the building by their rivals and were driven back to Paradise Square after vicious street fighting. Altercations continued as far away as

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

and

Chatham Street Park Row is a street located in the Financial District, Civic Center, and Chinatown neighborhoods of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The street runs east-west, sometimes called north-south because the western end is nearer to the Fin ...

s, in the northern half of Park Row, but no police were dispatched. With the exception of a few nearby Metropolitan patrolmen, who were seriously injured, each police faction claimed the responsibility lay with the other. Police inactivity caused the situation to escalate in the next few hours. Asbury, Herbert. ''The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the New York Underworld''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1928, pp 102–06; English, T.J. ''Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish American Gangster''. New York: HarperCollins, 2005. (pg. 27–28); The following morning, the Five Pointers returned to the Bowery with the Roach Guards and attacked the ''Green Dragon'', a popular Broome Street resort and meeting place for the Bowery Boys and other local criminals. They managed to surprise the Bowery gangsters inside the building, and armed with iron bars and large paving blocks, they proceeded to wreck the bar room, rip up the floor of the dance hall, and drink all the alcohol in the place. News of the incident quickly reached the Bowery Boys, who then called upon other gangs of the Bowery to join them and confronted the Five Pointers at Bayard Street, where one of the largest street gang battles in the city's history occurred. At around 10:00 a.m., amid savage fighting, a lone patrolman bravely used his club to move through the gangsters in an attempt to take the ring leaders into custody. He was knocked down and attacked by the crowd, stripped of his uniform, and beaten with his own nightstick. He managed to crawl back to the sidewalk, and wearing only his cotton drawers, he ran towards the Metropolitan headquarters on White Street, where he informed the precinct of the fighting before he collapsed. A small police squad was sent out to break up the fighting, but upon reaching Centre Street, the gangs turned against the police, who were forced to retreat after several officers were injured. They made a second attempt, this time fighting their way into the mob, and arrested two men believed to be the leaders. The gangsters responded by storming into the low houses lining The Bowery and Bayard Street, forcing residents out, and climbed to the rooftops, where they proceeded to shower the Metropolitan officers with stones and brickbats until they fled from the area. When the police left without their prisoners, the fighting stopped for a few moments. The truce lasted only an hour or two as fighting resumed near

The Tombs ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, supposedly brought about by a group of women from the Five Points who had provoked the Dead Rabbits into attacking the Bowery gangs. Bringing reinforcements, the participants were estimated at between 800 and 1000, armed with bludgeons, paving stones, brickbats, axes, pitchforks, and other weapons. Several hundred other criminals also arrived in the area, mostly burglars and thieves, who were not affiliated with either side and simply took the opportunity for looting. Residents and store owners all along the Bowery were forced to barricade their buildings and protect themselves with pistols and muskets. Fighting continued until early afternoon, when a larger police force arrived, sent by Police Commissioner

Simeon Draper Simeon Draper (January 19, 1806 - November 6, 1866) was a prominent merchant and politician in New York City. During the American Civil War, he was the federal government's agent for receiving captured cotton from the Confederate States of Americ ...

, and marched in close formation towards the mob. After hard fighting, they cleared the streets, forcing both the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into the buildings and to the rooftops once again. The police followed the gangsters, using their clubs at every opportunity, and began arresting large numbers of men. Some refused to surrender to police, such as one man who, while fighting police, fell off the roof of a Baxter Street tenement fracturing his skull. He was promptly killed by Bowery gangsters on the ground, who stomped him to death. Two leaders of the Dead Rabbits were finally arrested by police despite heavy resistance from fellow gang members. The police took them to a nearby police precinct followed by a group of Bowery Boys. Fighting resumed as soon as the police left. Barricades were set up with push carts and stones from which gangsters fired weapons, hurled bricks, and used clubs against their enemies. At one point, a Dead Rabbit stepped in front of his barricade and used his pistol to kill two Bowery Boys and wound two others despite heavy fire. He was finally knocked unconscious, reportedly by a small boy whose brother was a Bowery Boy. The police returned to the area but were unable to re-enter and were forced to retreat several times with heavy losses. That evening, they called upon Captain

Isaiah Rynders Captain Isaiah Rynders (1804 – January 3, 1885) was an American businessman, sportsman, underworld figure and political organizer for Tammany Hall. Founder of the ''Empire Club'', a powerful political organization in New York during the mid ...

to use his influence to stop the battle. Rynders, the

political boss In politics, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of their greatest influence. Numerous of ...

of the Sixth Ward, was long associated with the underworld, and it was thought that he could force them to stop. He agreed, and upon his arrival between 6:00–7:00 p.m., he addressed the gangsters from the barricades. Although he tried to reason with them by telling them the futility of fighting, they refused to listen, and Rynders was forced to escape into the company of his henchmen, when the mob responded by throwing rocks at him. He then traveled to the Metropolitan Police Headquarters where he advised Draper to call in the military. Meanwhile, fires had been set to two or three houses while residents remained under siege by looters and thugs. At around 9:00 p.m., the Eighth and the Seventy-First Regiments of the

under Major-General Charles W. Sandford marched down White and Worth Streets with

fixed bayonets ''Fixed Bayonets!'' is a 1951 American war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller and produced by Twentieth Century-Fox during the Korean War. It is Fuller's second film about the Korean War. In his motion-picture debut, James Dean appears br ...

. Accompanied by two police detachments of 75 men each, they moved ahead of the guardsmen, clubbing gangsters and rioters. Although neither regiment was at full strength, the show of force was enough to panic the gangsters to flee back to their hideouts. The fighting ceased, with 500 men remaining at the City Arsenal until 4:00 a.m., although police and national guardsmen continued to patrol the district into the next day.

Aftermath

During the two days, eight men were killed and between thirty to a hundred others injured, roughly half requiring hospitalization. It was believed that many gang members were carried off by their friends and, over the next few days, those who were killed in the fighting were buried in cellars, hidden passageways, and other locations in the Five Points and Paradise Square. Many known "sluggers" from both sides were noticeably absent from the area following the riot. According to underworld legend, these sites would be used for secret burials by street gangs for the next several decades. Afterwards, occasional violence against Bowery Boys who ventured into the Five Points was reported, although none of these attacks reached the levels seen during the riots. The most serious incident occurred the next day, when a group of Bowery Boys fought members of the

Kerryonians The Kerryonians were the second oldest criminal street gang in New York City but may have been the first gang in the city. The members were made up of recent Irish immigrants from County Kerry, Ireland. There was also a 19th-century Philadel ...

in Centre Street, but they were chased back to the Bowery and Chatham Square by the time police arrived. Sporadic fighting continued for another week, most being confined in

German-American German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...

neighborhoods ( Little Germany) in the East Side and the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

by younger criminals emulating the Irish gangs. Many of the Five Points gangs, most notably the Dead Rabbits, resented the implications made by police and newspapers that they had been involved in criminal activity. The Dead Rabbits paid for a letter to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', denying those assertions.

In popular culture

In films and television

The Dead Rabbit Riot was featured in the ''

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

documentary television series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...

History's Mysteries ''History's Mysteries'' is an American documentary television series that aired on the History Channel. Overview The 154 episodes of the series were produced from 1998 to 2011. Each season consisted of 12 to 14 one-hour episodes that focused on ...

'' in 1998. The story of the New York Dead Rabbits is told, in highly fictionalized form, in

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, inclu ...

's 2002 film ''

Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book '' The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...

'', which was partially inspired by Herbert Asbury's book ''Gangs of New York''. In the 2014 film, ''

Winter's Tale ''The Winter's Tale'' is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, many modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some criti ...

'', the Dead Rabbits and the Short Tails are featured prominently; a similar theme pervades

Mark Helprin Mark Helprin (born June 28, 1947) is an American novelist, journalist, conservative commentator, Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, and M ...

1983 novel of the same name. The fourth season of the 2014 television series, ''Hell on Wheels'' has a few Dead Rabbit characters.

In literature

A book of poetry by Richard Griffin, ''The Dead Rabbit Riot, A.D. 1857: And Other Poems'', was published in 1915. Patricia Beatty's 1987 historical children's fiction novel '' Charlie Skedaddle'' mentions Dead Rabbits (the main character is a Bowery Boy). The riot of 1857 is dramatized (briefly) in Chapter XVIII of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).

In art

Artist George Henry Hall's 1858 painting is titled ''A Dead Rabbit'' (also entitled ''Study of the Nude'' or ''Study of an Irishman''), which depicts a dead Dead Rabbit gang member killed during the riot on July 4, 1857 in New York City's Lower East Side.

Notes

References

* Anbinder, Tyler. ''Five Points: the 19th-century New York City neighborhood that invented tap dance, stole elections, and became the world's most notorious slum'' (Simon and Schuster, 2001) *Clark, Emmons. ''History of the Seventh Regiment of New York, 1806–1889''. Vol. I. New York: The Seventh Regiment, 1890. *Francis, Augustus Theodore. ''History of the 71st Regiment, N.G., N.Y., American Guard''. New York: The Veterans Association, 1919. * Katz, Helena. ''Gang Wars: Blood and Guts on the Streets of Early New York'' (2005)

External links

{{Commonscat, Dead Rabbits (street gang)
The Dead Rabbits RiotThe bloody, two-day "Great Gang Fight" of 1857
1857 riots 1857 in New York (state) 1857 murders in the United States July 1857 events 1850s in New York City 19th century in Manhattan Irish-American history Irish-American culture in New York City Military history of New York City Political violence in the United States Riots and civil disorder in New York City White American riots in the United States Know Nothing Mass murder in New York (state) Five Points, Manhattan Feuds in the United States Mass murder in the United States Mass murder in New York City