Image:  ?The Riots in New York: The Mob Lynching a Negro in Clarkson-Street? [1]

One of the things that first interested me about Joseph F. Smith was his personality as a diarist.  He liked to pen elaborate descriptions of impressive places he visited, such as the ancient Mo?okini heiau (temple) in Hawaii, the famous Mauna Loa volcano, or the Wentworth Castle and Estates near Barnsley, England.[2]  He cataloged what he saw as faults in others, ranging from family members, to LDS church enemies, to people he encountered as a missionary.[3]  He recorded seemingly insignificant details and used trite or repetitive phrases (some of which have crept into my own journaling vocabulary), in the process illuminating much about his education, priorities, biases, and spirituality.[4]  And we can?t leave out the infamous cat massacre that Amanda HK described in a post some time ago.

He also wrote about how the major events of his time affected him personally, including culturally and politically momentous occasions (yes, I’m somewhat stretching for a connection to this month?s theme).  This will be the subject of a quick trio of posts over the next few days commemorating the 150^th anniversary of the New York Draft Riots.  In this post I will focus on the early context for Joseph F.?s experiences during the riots; in the remaining two I will examine his day-by-day account of the riots, striving to uncover in his retelling relevant insights into his personality and mindset.

Two weeks following the pivotal battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863) and the successful conclusion of the siege of Vicksburg (July 4, 1863), a riot broke out in New York City that lasted for four long days (July 13-16, 1863). The riots were caused by a perfect storm of intersecting factors:  pressing manpower needs in the Union military; an unpopular conscription law that many New Yorkers–especially those of Irish descent–saw as unfairly drawing on the poorer classes; simmering tension over the effects of emancipation; and the war’s continuation due to bungling Union leadership and despite victories like Gettysburg.  These all converged and exploded in the sweltering heat of New York as the draft began to be enforced.

Joseph F. Smith, taking a few days? respite in Manhattan following the conclusion of his first mission to the British Isles (1860-1863), was there to witness this largest riot in American History.  Like most Mormons, he had observed the war from afar (though from the ?other side of the pond?).[5]  He followed the major events with what could be best described as detached interest, mentioning in his diary only a few war-related developments between 1860 and 1863.[6] He likely shared with his relatives and many other church members a fatalistic attitude about the war, regarding it as a continuation of the fulfillment of Joseph Smith Jr.?s 1832 prophecy that war would soon be ?poured out upon all nations,? (D&C 87:2-3).[7]

His level of interest also mirrored that of the British among whom he lived and labored for the greater part of the war–focusing on developments that impacted the English.  He noted British events that were a direct result of the American Civil War, in one particular case a town containing 23 textile mills that had been forced to close by the halt of Southern cotton being imported into Britain.[8]

Beside a passing interest in American developments, it seems that Joseph F.primarily spent his mission focusing on his missionary labors among the British Saints.  He thoroughly enjoyed himself, to be sure, taking advantage of educational and recreational opportunities that had been unavailable during his previous mission to the Hawaiian Islands and were unparalleled in their grandeur in the Salt Lake Valley.  Half-British himself, he was occasionally swept up in the culture of Old England and, I think, returned to the United States feeling more British than American.  This comes through in his formal, observational descriptions of the Draft Riots, which I will discuss more in the next two posts.

Image:  Parade honoring George McClellan?s appointment as General over the Army of the Potomac, 14 December 1861 Illustrated London News.  (JFS mentioned McClellan?s appointment in his diary on 23 November 1861.)[9]