The New York City Draft Riot lasted five days, from Monday, July 13, through Friday, July 17, 1863. It was, arguably, in terms of loss of human life the most destructive episode of urban civil unrest in American history. The "official" death toll was listed at 119, though many contemporaries conjectured–based on often unsubstantiated and exaggerated reports--that more than a thousand people may have been killed.

Despite the horrific loss of life and destruction of property, President Abraham Lincoln never declared martial law in New York City during the week of rioting. Although New York required federal troops to quell the rioting, Lincoln's decision not to declare martial law distanced federal authorities from the political decisions about how the riots should be stopped and how the city would rebuild in the aftermath. The lack of federal involvement freed local and state Republicans and Democrats to wrestle for control of the city in the riots' aftermath.

The pro-war Democrats of Tammany Hall were at the center of New York City's political life in the years following the riots. Tammany, led by its chairman, William "Boss" Tweed, denounced the rioters' lawlessness and attacks on private property, while also further developing plans to offer relief to working-class citizens from the draft lottery that federal officials had rescheduled in August. At the same time, Tammany appeased some of the concerns of local Republicans by vigorously prosecuting rioters in the late summer and early fall. Sixty-seven convictions were handed down, with jail terms of varying lengths.

When the federal draft resumed in late August, the federal government stationed ten thousand federal troops in the city. With such a military presence, the lottery proceeded peaceably. Tammany Democrats and their ally in Albany, Governor Horatio Seymour, argued successfully that the federal government should reduce New York City's draft quota from twenty-six thousand to twelve thousand men. Tammany also helped to supervise the lottery, which eased working-class concerns about the draft's fairness. During the week of the riots, the city's Common Council approved a three million-dollar exemption fund, but the Republican mayor, George Opdyke, vetoed the allocation. Over Opdyke's protests, the Board of Supervisors in response established its own Exemption Committee that paid for replacements for drafted policemen, firemen, and poor men with dependents. This decision virtually guaranteed that any New Yorkers who did not want to fight for the Union would not be drafted into service. The New York Sun reported that, through September 28, 1863, 1,042 drafted men had provided substitutes, forty-nine men had paid the three-hundred dollar exemption fee, and only two had actually joined the Union Army. Despite the limited draft, however, New York City residents–including many immigrant workers–fought for the North during the war in local militia companies.

New York's African American population, which numbered more than twelve thousand before the riots, fell to less than ten thousand by 1865, as blacks fled the city in large numbers during and in the aftermath of the riots. Of those who remained, over half moved temporarily to police stations or to the outskirts of the city. Republicans formed aid societies--such as the Merchants' Committee for the Relief of Colored People Suffering from the Late Riots--that distributed food and clothing to poor blacks. Local Republicans who belonged to the Union League Club also were instrumental in helping form the Twentieth Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, New York City's first black volunteer force in the Union Army. The new regiment was quartered and trained at Riker's Island and marched through the city in March 1864, on their way to serve in New Orleans. City Republicans lauded these black troops as a model for New York's working poor, black and white, to emulate.

The Draft Riots revealed much about wartime New York City. An angry immigrant working-class had protested violently against the conscription efforts of the federal government; an entrenched business elite fought to maintain its control over the city; Tammany Democrats sought, successfully, although not without resistance, to develop and assert the power of their own political machine, aided by their immigrant, largely Irish, base of supporters; and African-American New Yorkers were harshly reminded that the urban North did not necessarily provide safe haven from racial violence. Soon after the riots were quelled, the northern war effort finally started to bear fruit, the city's economy rebounded (aided by the re-legalization of the cotton trade with the rebel states), and the constituencies that faced off during the riots reorganized themselves to confront the postwar question of whether Tammany Hall and ‘Boss' Tweed would continue to control the city's politics and, by extension, much of its economy.