I’m slow to watch the movies. I wait until they are out on video, so as to enjoy talking back to the television set.
So, I just saw Gangs of New York for the first time this weekend. And as much as the brutality of the main characters bothered me, what truly caught my attention was the historic background. And I keep wondering about its accuracy.
I am Canadian, and so NYC history never really came up in school. I don’t even have the basics of how the city developed, although I know that it was a major immigration point during the nineteenth century, and that, typical of human nature, those who had lived in NYC a generation or two were pretty tough on the potato-famine Irish, in particular. I realize this lack of charity likely extended to anyone getting off the boats without a clue, but I have read an account or two of the treatment the Irish got. Not exhaustive, but enough to give a rough idea.
It had never occured to me, for example, to wonder where the Union army got all their soldiers. In GNY, the strong young men getting off the boat were told “Sign here. You’re an American citizen. Sign there. Welcome to the army, son.” Is this even remotely factual? Can someone direct me to an even-handed account of this kind of conscription?
In addition, there was a lot of emphasis put on a riot that took over the city, in opposition to a draft order in which, if you had $300 (which seems to me like a fortune in that economy) you could buy your way out, but every able-bodied male lacking that option were to serve in the Union army. The riot itself raged to the point that, in the movie, the Navy (which Navy?) actually fired on the city from the harbour. The voice-over near the end made a comment that sounded - to my uninformed ears - like the men intended to be drafted mostly died in the riots. Again, how factual is that? Resources?
So, educate me. Books, websites, et cetera.