In 1863, riots swept across New York City. Needing bodies to reinforce the ranks at the height of the Civil War, the federal government had instituted a military draft. All across New York, immigrants and the city’s underclass took to the streets, angry and fearful they would have to fight in the Union Army. The New York Times, a pro-Union and anti-slavery newspaper, was a leading target of the mob. However, the staff of the paper was well-armed.
In fact, the paper had three Gatling guns – an early machine gun – on hand to intimidate the crowd and defend the building. (One of the guns was manned by Leonard Jerome, a wealthy friend of Times co-founder Henry Raymond, and the grandfather of Winston Churchill.) It’s a mystery where the Times got the Gatling guns, which were only invented and offered to the War Department the year before. The most likely explanation is that they were procured from the...
