Preserving the Peace Order and Disorder in Civil War Philadelphia

Abstract

After nearly 125 years of scrutiny, the American Civil War remains a fertile ground for historical inquiry. But while we know much about political developments, military strategies and battlefield experi ences, our knowledge of life on the Northern home front remains meager. One aspect of the home front experience has attracted wide spread notice. Numerous scholars have noted that the wartime tensions in general, and those surrounding conscription in particular, led to periodic outbreaks of rioting, with the bloodiest occurring in New York in July 1863. This essay will use those disorderly episodes as a backdrop to explore a less dramatic facet of Philadelphia's wartime experience: Despite ample provocation, serious rioting never disrupted the City of Brotherly Love.1 It is a bit tricky to claim that a particular place and time was How does an historian ask the historical record such a question? Newspapers or diarists rarely note that a is unusually orderly. Those who are likely to make public statements on the issue generally have an axe to grind. Mayor Alexander Henry?a gentleman who emerges as somthing of a hero in this piece?noted the almost uninterrupted order and quiet of the city in the war's first year and added similar pronouncements in his next three annual reports.2 But we probably should not hang a judgment on the words of the man charged with keeping the calm. While Henry's optimistic words support the point, the conclusion that wartime Philadelphia was relatively calm rests on a broad reading of sources?both newspapers and personal papers?that should have revealed unusual disruptions.3