New York City in the Civil War

New York City was the center of business, commerce, manufacturing, culture, and war spirit in the North during the Civil War. Abraham Lincoln gained an important national audience at the Cooper Institute in February 1860.

Tens of thousands of young men enlisted in the city and marched off to fight. Factories churned out materiel for the soldiers. Black leaders such as Frederick Douglass mobilized African American support for the Union. Foreign dignitaries were the subject of grand celebrations on Broadway. Immigrants raised celebrated ethnic regiments, and nationally renowned newspapers debated the pressing issues of the day. In short, the city was a vital engine that powered Union efforts. Yet New York was also a divided metropolis where political differences were hashed out—sometimes violently. The deadliest urban racial violence in American history took place in Manhattan in July 1863. In this book, New Yorkers regain their place at the center of the Union war effort on both the battlefield and the home front.

Acclaimed historians Jonathan W. White and Timothy J. Orr bring New York City’s Civil War story to life through photographs and illustrations drawn from libraries, archives, and private collections around the United States. Foreword author Harold Holzer is the Jonathan F. Fanton Director of the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College and a leading historian of Lincoln and the Civil War in New York City.