As the Civil War began, there were already nearly a million New Yorkers living in what was quickly turning into a bustling metropolis. And the city had nearly doubled in population in the preceding ten years.
Many of the new residents of New York were immigrants, and many of those were from Ireland. The potato famine of the 1840s had devastated Irish society, causing a flood of emigration that swelled the cities of America.
Scenes of life in New York City reflect a city in transition. Older houses evoking the city's Dutch roots still marked some city streets, adjacent to newer structures with four or five floors.
And New York City, as it had been since the Dutch first settled it, was a center of business. During the Civil War, business boomed, as the vast armies the United States was putting in the field needed to be supplied.