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515 Series III Volume III- Serial 124 - Union Letters, Orders, Reports

Page 515 UNION AUTHORITIES.

STATE OF NEW YORK, OFFICE ACTG. ASST. PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL, Albany, July 16, 1863.

Colonel JAMES B. FRY,

Prov. March General United States, Washington, D. C.:

COLONEL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a telegram form the Provost-Marshal-General directing a report twice each week as to the progress of the draft in the districts of this division, and to state in obedience thereto that the drawing has been completed in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Districts in peaceable manner. The orders for the draft in the Thirteenth, Twenty-first, and Twenty-second Districts arrived last night. In the city of Troy the drafting commenced for the Fifteenth District on Tuesday of this week. On the morning of this day I went to the headquarters of the provost-marshal of that district and took with me a sergeant and ten men of the Invalid Corps, whom I placed under the orders of Captain Cooley, of the Eleventh U. S. Infantry, who had been ordered by the War Department to assist Captain Hushes. Everything went on well; nine towns of Washington County were drawn and all that was contemplated to be done that day took place, but in the afternoon evidences of riot began to manifested themselves, and the sheriff of the country, in the absence of the mayor, undertook ot provide against it by ordering six companies of a regiment of militia, resident in Troy, to rendezvous in the State armory in that city, only tow of such companies, however, responding to the call; not much, if any, over 100 men. I provided the provost-marshal with canister, ammunition, and some grenades and shell procured form Colonel Thornton, of the Watervliet Arsenal, and sent him also form here some 6,000 rounds of muskets ammunition, all of which was delivered that night. After accomplishing this drawing of the nine towns, as the marshal had considerable clerical work to accomplish in connection therewith, he suggested that it might be advisable to omit drafting the next day. Believing that the containing influence of the riot in the city of New York would doubtless cease with its suppression, which I through would certainly occur by that day at farthest, I acceded to the suggestion; but on the morning of the next day, although there was no drafting going on, the riot broke out and the mob indulged in a counterpart of the depredations which have been occurring in the city of New York, destroying the office of a certain newspaper, the Trooy Times, sacking he building, as well as the house of a prominent citizen, tearing down a colored people's church, releasing prisoners form the jail, &c.

Under this state of things, and the militia being unreliable, and as the city of Albany was on the verge of a riot, I authorized Captain Hushes to give the notice that the draft had been suspended. This, however, did not seem to have the effect of immediately stopping the riot, as many of the depredations took place after the notice had been given, but doubtless before citizens could disseminate it sufficiently to bring it to the understanding of the rioters. To quiet the apprehensions in this city I published also that the draft had been suspended in Troy, and that there was no draft occurring in Albany, as it had not yet been ordered. I resorted to this step, after a full realization had not yet been ordered. I resorted to this step, after a full realization of the situation and open conviction that it was the only course to pursue. The Provost-Marshal- General will remember that the government of this State is in the hands of individuals whose party has not


Page 515 UNION AUTHORITIES.