The riot itself grew out of a longtime political struggle between the Democratic Mayor, Fernando Wood, and the Republican state legislature.
The events in the movie takes place in 1865, when Fernando Wood served in the House of Representatives.
February 14 - Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
Amanda recognized handsome, blue-eyed Fernando Wood, a wealthy politician with ambitions for the mayor's office.
They saw Greeley; Fernando Wood said something that was obviously contemptuous.
The Mayor was Fernando Wood, and the year was 1861.
Fernando Wood served a second mayoral term in 1860-1862.
The vote in an informal ballot stood: 28 for Corning, 21 for Fernando Wood, and 18 scattering.
No former mayor of New York has won federal elective office since Fernando Wood was elected to Congress in 1862.
The support helped win the election for the first Tammany mayor, Fernando Wood, in 1854.