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
Commemoration of the American Civil War on postage stamps and during many decades thereafter, sporadic U. S. definitive issues appeared in honor of Civil War-related statesmen and military leaders—exclusively those, however, who had supported the Union cause. Their Confederate counterparts remained unrecognized on American stamps until 1937, when Lee and Jackson were included among the Civil War generals and admirals pictured in the commemorative Army-Navy issues, a series promoted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (himself a stamp enthusiast). Even then, however, with the war some seven decades in the past, this inclusion of a stamp honoring Confederate generals proved controversial. After the issue was announced in May 1936, a