tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post7396153206090346715..comments2023-10-26T09:58:01.275-04:00Comments on The Bowery Boys: New York City History: It's the 150th anniversary of the 1863 Civil War Draft Riots. Why should we care?The Bowery Boys - Greghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15973633888975286268noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5206380617235471991.post-64110915897683428692013-07-13T13:44:51.354-04:002013-07-13T13:44:51.354-04:00Perhaps the Draft Riots were the high-water mark, ...Perhaps the Draft Riots were the high-water mark, if you will, of sheer terror in the streets of New York, which no one was immune from-- but if you want a horrifying needless tragedy with several times more loss of life, and devastation of an entire community, you'd have to say the General Slocum shipwreck. The Riots may have scared people, but they were in fact escapable for those not directly in its path. The Slocum, sadly, was not escapable for most of those aboard, and a wholesale emptying of many tenement buildings in the Tompkins Square neighborhood was a much more solemn reminder of the sheer random chance of a death, of a sort to be dreaded, inexplicably befalling the seemingly undeserving.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com