New York in the American Civil War of the worst incidents of civil unrest in American history. The week of July 11 to July 16, 1863, was known at the time as "Draft Week". Many citizens were upset with new laws passed by Congress to draft men to fight in the unpopular war. The ensuing disturbances were the largest civil insurrection in American history apart from the Civil War. President Lincoln sent several regiments of militia and volunteer troops to control the city. The rioters numbered in the thousands and were mainly Irish Americans. Smaller-scale riots erupted in other cities throughout the North, including in other places
Names of the American Civil War American flag". Given that in the free states non-Yankee groups – Germans, Dutch-Americans, New York Irish and southern-leaning settlers in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois – showed majority opposition to waging the Civil War, other Confederate sympathizers have used the name "War of Yankee Aggression" or "Great War of Yankee Aggression" to indicate the Civil War as a Yankee war, not a Northern war "per se". Conversely, the "War of Southern Aggression" has been used by those who maintain that the Confederacy was the belligerent party. They maintain the thought that the Confederacy started the war when they initiated combat at