Security· Civil Aid and Humanitarian Operations
Plug-Uglies Riot response
A violent election-day riot in the capital that brought out the Marines against an armed mob.
The "Plug-Uglies," a gang of nativist Know-Nothing toughs from out of town, descended on a Washington polling place to seize it by force, and federal Marines were called out to restore order. The confrontation turned deadly serious when the rioters brought up a cannon and trained it on the Marine line, threatening to blow them apart; the Marines, under Colonel Henderson's eye, held their fire under repeated provocation until ordered, with one Marine taking a severe wound and several others struck by stones, before finally returning fire and clearing the streets. The cannon was seized. The riot was put down and the polls protected. It was a notable antebellum use of federal Marines in domestic disorder, and one of the rare occasions on which Marines faced artillery in the streets of the capital.
Record no. 371