[Richard Jao]

After watching Gangs of New York, I started to wonder exactly what kind of weaponry was actually used during those riots. As cool as the film looked, I'm fairly certain that Martin Scorcese took a good number of liberties with the materials.

Would anybody know what kind of melee weapons and firearms would've been used at the time? Or to be more general, what kind of weaponry would've been around New York during the 19th century?

[A. Spanjer]

This isn't really my main area of interest, but I'll give it a shot...

Having never seen the movie, I looked it up on Wikipedia, the article mentioned Shillaghs. That's probably pretty accurate, as there were a lot of poor, Irish immigrants at that time, and the Shillelagh would have been a weapon they knew how to make. There probably would have also been all sorts of knives, homemade clubs, and of course firearms. Probably mostly percussion cap pistols, but there may have been some long arms as well, probably even a few flintlocks.

Other Victorian weapons (such as sword canes) may have also been in New York at the time, but probably only in the hands of the wealthier Gentlemen.

Hope that helps!

[Sean Flynt]

I'd say the weapons were pretty reasonable, given the fact that so many trades required the use of large knives, hatchets, etc. Also consider the popularity of bowies and the general tendency of men in that period to carry knives of all kinds.

Check this search result:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ceY_ISKGRIsC...mp;f=false

[P. L. Gross]

Hatchets and large knives were the most common edged weapons available, as virtually every household had them. Any swords that showed up would most likely have been antiquated military models like sabers, not the broadsword the Priest was carrying. Clubs/shillelaghs, canes, staffs, and prybars were also widely available as impact weapons. Probably the most common of all, at least in a riot situation, were good old paving stones and bricks. Most firearms were well out of most immigrant's price range, but small single shot derringers were a possibility as they were fairly cheap. During the actual gang riot the movie was based on, if I recall correctly, there were a total of six fatalities, and it lasted a couple of days.

[Glen A Cleeton]

Ignore the movie entirely and look at the histories and timelines.

[Gert-Jan Beukers]

You guys all forget the good ol' broken beerbottle! Beerbottles were (almost) everywhere available, and it was a very nasty weapon.

[MB Tharp]

Dennis Miles was the smith making those blades

http://www.doubleedgeforge.com/

[Adam D. Kent-Isaac]

Some of them probably used baseball bats; baseball was extremely popular at that time especially in New York. I'm not sure how much historical accuracy those "nailbats" have that you sometimes see - baseball bats with nails hammered through them - but it would not surprise me at all if people used to make them back then. Another effective weapon would probably be a baseball bat soaked in glue and rolled in broken glass, although that is completely my imagination talking and I have no idea if it was actually common.

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Read the original Gangs of New York book--the one published in the late 1920s/early 1930s. A new edition of sorts was released to tie in with the movie, so you shouldn't have that much difficulty finding the book (at least in the new paperback form) in large bookstores or particularly well-stocked used-book shops. Just from memory--since I lent the book to a friend and hasn't got it back--the text mentions a very large variety of weapons from brickbats to brass knuckles, blackjacks, and firearms in use during the Draft Riots.

[Elling Polden]

Well, on the side of Order™, the New York times fielded three brand new M1962 Gatling guns to defend the freedom of the press...

[David Sutton]