Randall and Adam have the worst of it—Randall unable to leave the basement and Adam unable to leave his bed. Adam is acutely aware that he’s brought danger to the household and also that he’s in no condition to help defend it. A man named O’Brien, a soldier much like him, has been killed by a gang of women and they took six hours to do the job. A girl who protested was beaten and her boardinghouse destroyed. A druggist who offered the dying soldier a drink of water was beaten and his store destroyed.

John continues his forays outside though Mother begs him not to. “I’m careful,” he says. He tells her that a loyalty test is being administered on the street. All he has to do is say he’s for the South and he can walk unmolested. Nothing is easier for John than to say he hates the president.

He scavenges for food and information. He gives the first to Mother and Rosalie, but has become miserly with the second. Now he shuts himself up with Adam and Edwin whenever he returns. Rosalie only knows that the police have been overwhelmed; there’s no militia in the city as they’ve been sent to distant battles, and so, if the mob chooses murder and arson, which they do, there’s no one to stop them. That there are details beyond that, details worse than what John has already shared, details so dreadful no woman can hear them—well, that’s the most frightening part of all. She takes Randall his meals, both of them frustrated by the vagueness of her information, frightened that there is no better place to hide him.

By Wednesday the gangs have moved towards the wharfs, attacking the brothels and shaking down the bars and groceries for drinking money. In the afternoon, they are back, close enough to hear their voices again, only two blocks away, John says, but they turn north and the shouting fades. Still forcing their way into homes in the Gramercy Park area on Thursday, though John says the military has arrived at last. He says that a howitzer and an artillery unit just returned from Gettysburg now occupy the park. The tide is turning at last.

The riots end on Friday. Colonel Thaddeus Mott clears the Upper East Side and follows the retreat to the tenements, where his soldiers force their way in with the points of their bayonets. One group of rioters, driven to the roof, choose to jump to their deaths. By the day’s end, the barricades and bodies are being removed and the streets are secure. There is no reliable estimate as to how many have died.

—

Adam and Randall leave under army escort for the safety of a friend’s house in Rhode Island. “I’ll always be grateful,” Adam tells the Booths, “for the way you stood by me. I’ll never forget it.”

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