Editing Plug Uglies

{{Short description|American street gang}}
{{Infobox Criminal organization
| name                 = Plug Uglies
| image                = Plug Uglies Riot Baltimore.jpg
| image_size           = 325px
| caption              = The Plug Uglies were notorious for being instigators of many [[Know-Nothing Riot|Nativist riots]] in [[Baltimore]] from 1854–1865.
| founded by           = 
| years active         = 1854–1865
| territory            = [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]] and [[Five Points, Manhattan]], [[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], present-day Worth Street, Baxter Street, and [[Columbus Park (Manhattan)|Columbus Park]], in Manhattan, New York City, New York
| founded =  
| founding location    = [[Mount Vernon, Baltimore]], [[Maryland]] 
| ethnic makeup        = [[Old Stock Americans]]
| membership est    = 
| criminal activities  = [[street fighting]], [[knife fight]]ing [[assault]], [[murder]], [[robbery]], [[arson]], [[riot]]ing
| allies                      = [[Bloody Tubs]], [[Rip Raps]], [[Know Nothings|Nativists]], [[Dead Rabbits]]      
| rivals                      = Baltimore Irish American gangs
}}

[[File:Irish Caricature 19th Century Enlarged.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A plug hat worn by a rowdy Irishman in a 19th-century [[Thomas Nast]] [[stereotype]]d [[caricature]] similar to the ones worn by the Plug Uglies.]]

The '''Plug Uglies''' were an American [[Know Nothing|Nativist]] criminal street gang, sometimes referred to loosely as a political club, that operated in the west side of [[Baltimore, Maryland]], from 1854 to 1865. The term ''plug ugly'' was used to identify an extremely tough ferocious fighter who could give a sound beating to an opponent, with the Plug Uglies' name additionally stemming from their practice of stuffing oversized [[Bowler hat|plug hats]] with wool and leather, pulling them down over their ears for head protection as primitive helmets during the numerous street battles they participated in.  The name Plug Uglies was also used to refer to a number of criminal gangs in [[New York City]] as well as [[Philadelphia]].

The Plug Uglies took part in the 1856 Baltimore [[Know-Nothing Riot of 1856|Know-Nothing Riot]]. They allied themselves with the New York City Irish [[Dead Rabbits]] gang in looting New York City during the [[American Civil War]] in the [[New York City draft riots|Draft Riots of 1863]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2017}} However, this latter alleged association is disputed, as the Plug Uglies, a Nativist gang, were anti-Irish.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

==History==
The Plug Uglies coalesced in the 1850s shortly after the creation of the [[Mount Vernon Hook-and-Ladder Company]], a [[Baltimore Fire Department]] volunteer fire company located in the [[Mount Vernon, Baltimore|Mount Vernon]] area. They were originally runners and rowdies affiliated with Mount Vernon. Plug Ugly captains included [[John English (gangster)|John English]] and [[James Morgan (gangster)|James Morgan]]. Other prominent members were [[Louis A. Carl]], [[George Coulson]], [[George "Howard" Davis]], [[Henry Clay Gambrill]], [[Alexander Levy (gangster)|Alexander Levy]], [[Erasmus "Ras" Levy]],<ref>On April 26, 1860, Erasmus Levy led the mob which broke up the Maryland Republican Convention. {{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1860/04/27/news/maryland-republican-convention-meeting-baltimore-hall-mobbed-convention.html |title=Maryland Republican Convention.; MEETING AT BALTIMORE – THE HALL MOBBED, AND THE CONVENTION DISPERSED. |date=April 27, 1860 |newspaper=New York Times archive |access-date=March 27, 2012}}</ref> [[James Wardell]], and [[Wesley Woodward]]. The gang associated with the emerging American Party, also known as the Nativist [[Know Nothing]]s, in Baltimore.

Like similar associations in Baltimore and other U.S. cities during this period, the Plug Uglies' street influence made them useful to party politicians anxious to control the polls on election days. The Plug Uglies were the central figures in the first election Know-Nothing Riot in Baltimore in October 1855. Together with the [[Rip Raps#19th Century criminal gang|Rip Raps]], they were also actively involved in deadly rioting at the October 1856 municipal election in Baltimore and in similar violence at the [[Know-Nothing Riot]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], in June 1857. At the Washington riot, the National Guard was called out to quell the fighting. Accounts of the Washington riot appeared in newspapers nationally and gained widespread notoriety for the Plug Uglies.

Besides election-day fighting, the gang was involved in several assassinations and shootings in Baltimore. Most notably, Plug Ugly Henry Gambrill was implicated in the murder of a Baltimore police officer in September 1858. Gambrill's trial (presided over by judge [[Henry Stump]]) and the subsequent deadly violence relating to it, made the crime one of the most sensational of the era.

The violence of the Plug Uglies and other political clubs had an important impact on Baltimore. It was largely responsible for the creation of modern policing and a paid, professional fire department, as well as court and electoral reforms. These reforms, together with the election of a Reform municipal administration in October 1860 and then the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], led to the breaking up of the Plug Uglies.

The Plug Uglies were featured in [[Herbert Asbury]]'s book [[The Gangs of New York (book)|''Gangs of New York'']],<ref name="Asbury, Gangs of New York">[[#Asbury, Gangs of New York|Asbury, ''Gangs of New York'' (1927)]]</ref> and [[Lucy Sante]]'s chronicle of old New York, ''Low Life''.  They are also mentioned in Chapter XIII of MacKinlay Kantor's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Andersonville" (1955).

On July 16, 1863, during the New York City draft riots, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that Plug-Uglies and Bloody Tubs gang members from Baltimore, as well as the [[Philadelphia]] [[Schuykill Rangers]] under [[Jimmy Haggerty]] and other rowdies of Philadelphia," had come to New York to participate in the riots alongside the [[Dead Rabbits]] and other New York gangs. The ''Times'' said that "the scoundrels cannot afford to miss this golden opportunity of indulging their brutal natures, and at the same time serving their colleagues the [[Copperhead (politics)|Copperheads]] and secesh [secessionist] sympathizers."<ref name="Times    7-16-63">{{cite news|title=FACTS AND INCIDENTS OF THE RIOT.: THE MURDER OF COLORED PEOPLE IN THOMPSON AND SULLIVAN STREETS.|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 16, 1863|page=1}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of historical gang members of New York City]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

* {{cite book
  |last=Asbury  |first=Herbert  |author-link=Herbert Asbury
  |title=The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
  |publisher=Alfred A. Knoff  |location=New York
  |orig-year=<!--  |year=2003-->
  |isbn=0-09-943674-4
  |year=1927 <!-- temporary hack whilst cite book has been broken -->
  |ref=Asbury, Gangs of New York
}}

==References==
*Haskins, James., ''Street Gangs'', New York: Hastings House, 1974.
*Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime'' (3rd ed.). New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005.
*Tracy Matthew Melton, ''Hanging Henry Gambrill: The Violent Career of Baltimore's Plug Uglies, 1854–1860'' (2005).

==Further reading==
*Kobler, John., ''Capone: The Life and World of Al Capone''. New York: J.P. Putnam's Sons, 1971.
*Peterson, Virgil., ''The Mob: 200 Years of Organized Crime in New York''. Ottawa, Illinois: Green Hill, 1983.
*Sante, Luc, ''Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York'' (1991)
*Tyler Anbinder, ''Five Points: The 19th Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections, and Became the World's Most Notorious Slum'' (2001).

==External links==
*[http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_113.html The Legend of Old Smoke Morrissey] by John William Tuohy

[[Category:Former gangs in Baltimore]]
[[Category:Culture of Baltimore]]
[[Category:Maryland Know Nothings| ]]
[[Category:Former gangs in New York City]]
[[Category:People of New York (state) in the American Civil War]]