The year was 1863. It was slightly rainy in New York that day, August 29, when the New York Herald, a daily tabloid with a pro-Democratic Party slant, announced the draft rolls for numerous New York
City wards. [1] One of of the men drafted that day was a 27-year-old married sailor, born in Erie, New York, but living in Buffalo. [2] His name was Lawrence Weber.

Lawrence was drafted in an environment filled with tension. Due to the signing of the Conscription Act in March by President Lincoln, accompanied by an executive order, the War Department was empowered to draft males aged 20 to 46 for the Union Army. [3] However, such military obligations could be waived if a person paid a fee of $300 or paid for a substitute, giving an “unfair advantage to the rich,” even if it raised “needed revenue for the war effort,” leading to angry sentiments from the working class. Many white northern workers were not enthusiastic about the war effort, seeing as benefiting enslaved blacks and a “new class of millionaires,” but not themselves.[4]

More than a month before Lawrence was drafted, on July 13, these tensions played out on the streets of New York City. The disturbances, which would later be called a riot, started when 4,000 angry men, mostly poor Irish workers, marched to a draft drawing. [5] They were yelling “rich man’s war, poor man’s fight!,” among other slogans, and surged forward at the police, who opened fire on the crowd. “Four days of mass terror” followed, with mansions, an “orphan asylum” for black individuals, and a draft building burned, streetcar lines destroyed, and the pro-war New York Tribune’s office sacked. [6]
The destruction only stopped when five regiments of Union troops, including Nelson Shepard, a Michigan-born private, returned from the victorious Battle of Gettysburg entered the city. In a letter to
his parents, Orrin and Sarah Shepard, living in White River, Michigan, he described “some of the most disgusting sights I ever saw in my life”: drunken women walking through the streets and almost falling down, with men experiencing the same as they tried to whip their “little ragged children” for their drunken behavior. Shepard concluded by remarking that “you can [see what] liquor can do, it is as common to see a woman drunk as it is a man.”

Likely in June 1864, Lawrence began his military service. By this time, the face of the war was changing: Ulysses S. Grant put forward a plan in April to engage in a “consolidated strike against Confederate forces in an all-out effort to win the war.” [7] The family lore says that Lawrence had been “a gunner in the U.S. navy during the Civil War” and was “twenty-five years old when the war started in April 1861.” This was close to the reality: he served as an ensign on a 944-ton side-wheel steamship, named the USS Iuka, armed with four powerful artillery pieces, with another cannon added to the ship’s battery later on. [8] At the time, ensigns were commissioned sea officers, which outranked the lowly midshipmen. When Lawrence was ordered to the Iuka, it was serving as part of the East Gulf Blockading Squadron, based out of a Key West naval base, which patrolled hundreds of miles of Florida’s coastline, stretching from Cape Canaveral to Pensacola. [9]

The Iuka was part of a broader plan to blockade the Confederacy. This plan had its roots in the Anaconda Plan proposed in 1861 by General Winfield Scott to blockade Southern ports and stop commerce coming down the Mississippi River. Even though President Lincoln doubted the plan at the time, it came to become part of the Union’s strategy. While the East Gulf Blockading Squadron was “the most neglected of the blockade squadrons by the federal government,” as naval historian George E. Buker argues, because no major ports were in the area and yellow fever and malaria constantly plagued the crew, the squadron did serve an important purpose. The New York Times credited the
squadron in 1863 for destroying Confederate blockade runners and praised the new commander of the squadron the following year.

As a part of a blockade squadron, the Iuka went on adventures which spanned the seas. From June 7, 1864, when the ship steamed from New York harbor to Key West, with Lieutenant William C. Rodgers, a Harvard graduate and former merchant, in command, to June 12, 1865, when the ship had returned to Boston. [10] Other than escorting a steamer back to Boston in October 1864, the ship captured the
English schooner named Comus, sailing from Florida to Havana with 32 bales of contraband “sea-island cotton” in March 1865, with officers on the Iuka receiving prize money from the capture, and helped capture St. Marks, Florida from the Confederates in 1865. [11]

Lawrence’s service on the Iuka is not altogether clear. Some records say he resigned in October 1864 as an ensign, serving from January to October, while another says he served eight months. [12] While these records may seem to contradict themselves, both of these records can be correct. He was granted sick leave on October 3, 1864, which implied that he would return in the future, even if this didn’t
occur. [13] However, it is possible that he resigned on October 11 because he was too sick to continue his time at sea, possibly from yellow fever, malaria, or some other disease. [14]

While some of the records do not line up completely and succinctly, all existing records show that he served during the Civil War as an ensign. During the Civil War, manhood was slowly becoming “defined and achieved by killing” with the war serving as a “rite of passage for young white men” and two-million soldiers in the Union Army “were twenty-one or younger,” with Weber sightly older. [15] This means that even though his war experience did not seem to serve as a “rite of passage” for Lawrence or contribute to the new definition of American masculinity, it certainly had these effects on other men fighting on the battlefield or at sea. [16]

In later years, Lawrence became an insurance agent. He lived with his wife Barbara, a German-born woman, and their son, also named Lawrence, who was born in Brooklyn, New York, in November 1861. [17] By 1879, at age 43, well-established in Brooklyn, he began running a coal trading business, with a local man named John Quinn, named Weber & Quinn, near the Gowanus Canal. On January 2, 1897, Lawrence died a month before his 61st birthday, only owning $20,000 in real property/real estate and leaving his wife and son Lawrence as executors of his estate. [18] While snapshot into Lawrence Weber’s life only tells some of his story, it opens doors
worth exploring in the future.

Notes
[1] Saturday, August 29, 1863. New York Herald (New York, New York). “The Draft. The Drawings in the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Wards.” Vol. XXVIII, issue 239. Page 1. Courtesy of America’s
Historical Newspapers Database, 1741-1900; Almanac for MIDDLETOWN WB, CT on August 29, 1863, courtesy of the Northeast RCC ClimateMod 2, run by NOAA Regional Climate Centers.
[2] National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records (Provost Marshal General's Bureau; Consolidated Enrollment
Lists, 1863-1865); Record Group: 110, Records of the Provost Marshal General's Bureau (Civil War); Collection Name: Consolidated Enrollment Lists, 1863-1865 (Civil War Union Draft Records); NAI:
4213514; Archive Volume Number: 2 of 7. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; Registers of Officers and Enlisted Men Mustered into Federal Military or Naval Service during the Civil War. Series A0389 (6 volumes). New York (State). Bureau of Military Statistics. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Courtesy of Ancestry.com.
[3] “North Orders First Draft.” Chronicle of America (ed. Clifton Daniel, Mount Kisco, NY: Chronicle Publications, 1989), 374.
[4] Chronicle of America, “Anti-draft riots hit N.Y.” pp. 379.
[5] Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present (New York: HarperPerennial, 2003), 235-236.
[6] Zinn, 237; Chronicle of America, “Anti-draft riots hit N.Y.,” 379.
[7] Chronicle of America, “Grant, taking over federal forces, plans all-out drive to end war.” pp. 382.
[8] Alexander Laing, American Ships (New York: American Heritage Press, 1971), 375; Karl Jack Bauer and Stephen S. Roberts, Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), 89; Paul Silverstone, Civil War Navies, 1855-1883 (New York: Routledge, 2006), 57; Josephus Daniels, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series II, vol. 1 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1921), 110. List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900. University of California Libraries, Internet Archives. Callahan's List of Navy and Marine Corps Officers is a register of officers who served in the United States Navy and Marine Corps between 1775 and 1900. pp. 575. Accessed via fold3.com; Registers of Officers and Enlisted Men Mustered into Federal Military or Naval Service during the Civil War. Series A0389 (6 volumes). New York (State). Bureau of Military Statistics. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; “Volunteer Navy.” The United States Service Magazine, Vol. 1, no. 1, p. 595. A number of these records use the last name “Webber” instead of “Weber” but this is, in my view, just a misspelling or typographic error, since the
records align themselves in a common arch. The Iuka was originally called the Commodore and was built in Fair Haven Connecticut in 1864. It could, reportedly, travel at a speed of 12 knots. When it started its service, the Iuka had one Parrott Rifle (20-pound), two smooth-bores (12-pound), and one howitzer (24-pound). When it assisted in the ground assault with Union forces in St. Marks, it had three rifles (one 100-pound, 30-pound, and 20-pound), along with two 8 inch smooth-bores.
[9] Registers of Officers and Enlisted Men Mustered into Federal Military or Naval Service during the Civil War. Series A0389 (6 volumes). New York (State). Bureau of Military Statistics. New York State Archives, Albany, New York. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; “List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900.” University of California Libraries, Internet
Archives. Callahan's List of Navy and Marine Corps Officers is a register of officers who served in the United States Navy and Marine Corps between 1775 and 1900. pp. 575. Accessed via fold3.com;
“Volunteer Navy.” The United States Service Magazine, Vol. 1, no. 1, p. 595, 556-557; Bern Anderson By Sea and by River The Naval History of the Civil War (New York: De Capo Press, 1989), 118. The naval base was guarded by nearby Fort Taylor and Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas. While there is evidence that special engineers were part of the Iuka’s crew, other sites have made wild claims, saying that a black laborer from North Carolina named Dracus Chadwick, Isaac H. Houston, a Massachusetts man, Charles R. Loring, a man whose Civil War Naval Lock Box is being sold on an live auctioneers, and James P. Blanchard, were part of the crew as well, none of whose service on the ship can be independently confirmed.
[10] Arthur Wyllie, The Union Navy (UK: Lulu.com, 2007), 207-208; Charles W. Stewart, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, vol. 17 (Washington:
Government Printing Office, 1903), 766; Francis Henry Brown. Harvard University in the war of 1861-1865: A record of services rendered in the Army and Navy of the United States (Boston: Cupples, Upham, and Company, 1886), 21; “Report of the Annual Meeting,” May 20, 1889, p 43. From Bulletin of the Essex Institute, vol. XXI, no. 10-12, 1889. After reaching Boston on June 12, the ship was decommissioned on June 22 and sold to Arthus Leary on August 1. Rodgers stayed as a member of the crew until 1866. It was later renamed the Andalusia under new civilian orders and used as a merchant ship, sinking in the heavy fog in March 1876 off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
[11] Richard Rush and Robert H. Woods, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of Rebellion, Series I, vol. 3: The operations of the cruisers (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1896); 252. Civil War naval chronology, 1861-1865, Vol. 5 Washington: Naval History Division, 1965), 73; Stewart, Official Records, 829-830; Erik Heyl, Early American steamers, vol. 1 (Buffalo, NY: 1935), vi, 25.
[12] Registers of Officers and Enlisted Men Mustered into Federal Military or Naval Service during the Civil War. Series A0389 (6 volumes). New York (State). Bureau of Military Statistics. New York
State Archives, Albany, New York. Courtesy of Ancestry.com; “List of Officers of the Navy of the United States and of the Marine Corps from 1775 to 1900.” University of California Libraries, Internet
Archives. Callahan's List of Navy and Marine Corps Officers is a register of officers who served in the United States Navy and Marine Corps between 1775 and 1900, p. 575. Accessed via fold3.com.
[13] "Volunteer Navy." The United States Service Magazine (1864-1866) 12 1864: 595. ProQuest. Web. 13 February 2017; Terry L. Jones, Historical Dictionary of the Civil War Vol. 1 (Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, 2002), 1269; Ella Lonn, Desertion During the Civil War (United States: Pickle Partners Publishing, 2016), 201. According to numerous sources, sick leave was, during the Civil War, used not just as an excuse to get out of service but actual sickness like tuberculosis, sometimes to return home for some time, but that some overstayed their sick leave so they could desert the military. There
is no record of Weber as a deserter, but there is record of sick leave for a sickness, the name of which is not mentioned.
[14] There is a possibility he is in Navy directories, but I have not been able to access this at present time of writing this article. Other books and resources worth exploring are George E. Buker’s
Blockaders, Refugees & Contrabands: Civil War on Florida's Gulf Coast, 1861-1865, the documents at the National Archives on the “East Gulf Blockading Squadron, February 22, 1862-July 17, 1865,” David Cole’s article titled “Unpretending Service: The James L. Davis, the Tahoma, and the East Gulf Blockading Squadron,” the Perseus Digital Library, ProQuest databases, and the National Marine Archive.
[15] Michael Bronski, A Queer History of the United States (Boston: Beacon Press, 2011), 64.
[16] Bronski, 65, 68.
[17] The fact that she is German born is shown in the New York State Censuses of 1866, 1865, 1905, and 1915, along with the Passenger List into New York in 1847 and US Censuses in 1880, 1900, and 1910. Many of these same censuses show the information about the son Lawrence. Family lore says that they another child named Ida Weber who died in 1865 at age 5 but this cannot be independently verified.
[18] “Deaths,” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Jan. 3, 1897, p. 7; New York, Wills and Probate Records, New York, Kings County, Probate Records; New York. Surrogate's Court (Kings County), Probate
Place: Kings, New York; New York, Wills and Probate Records, Wills and Indexes, 1787-1923, Index, Letters of Test, 1897-1899, Probate Place: Kings, New York.


Lawrence Weber obit in The Coal Trade Journal (1897). 6 Jan 1897. Brooklyn, NY. Obituary for Lawrence Weber. The Coal Trade Journal,Volume 36, page 4 (Jan. 6, 1897):

Lawrence Weber died on Saturday at his home 126 Second Place, Brooklyn, N.Y., in his 61st year. He was a member of the firm Weber & Quinn, coal dealers, and was also interested in real estate. He was an expert rifle shot and was a member of the famous international team, which scored several victories in England and Ireland over twenty years ago.

(Source: Coal and Coal Trade Journal, Volume 36, Jan. 6, 1897 - edited by Frederick Edward Saward. - Books.Google.com)

Summarizing 1897 probate of Lawrence Weber
Probate Records, 1897

- He died on January 2, 1897
- "Real property" (ex: land and improvements on such land which incluudes buildings, machinery, mines, roads, etc...) that he owned in Brooklyn was worth $20,000 while "personal property" (ex: movable property such as livestock or other personal possessions)
- Barbara, his wife, and son Lawrence A. Weber both lived at 126 Second Place in Brooklyn, NY
- Barbara and Lawrence A. Weber (LAW) were executors of Lawrence Weber (LW)'s estate
- LW left no other child, descendant of a deceased child or an adopted child meaning that widow Barbara and LAW are only heirs
- Affirming LW's last will and testament to be correct and true
- Barbara moves to another part of Brooklyn (496 on Fifth Street) by 1904

Index, Letters of Test, 1897-1899

- Just notes Weber in other records.

Obit in Brooklyn Daily Eagle

"On January 2. MS97, LAWRENCE WEBER, in his 61st year. Funeral Monday morning. January 4, from his late residence, 126 Second place, at 9:30 o'clock; thence to St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Fourth av and Ninth st, where a requiem mass will be offered. Relatives and friends are respectfully Invited to attend."- https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/50474652/

"On January 2, 1897, at his residence, 126 Second place, LAWRENCE WEBER, In his 61st year. Notice ot funeral hereafter"- https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/50474638/

Buried on May 21, 1897, while his son was buried on 2/12 1942 as noted on http://www.green-wood.com/burial_results/index.php.