Part I: Before: city of confusion. My God, we are ruined! ; City of slavery ; City of confusion ; The great riot year ; The war of the pennies ; Immigrants and Know-Nothings ; A trio of Tammany rogues ; Lurching toward the precipice ; Riot and outrage ; From New York to bleeding Kansas ; Leaves of grass ; Hard times and high ; Murder and rebellion ; Slave ships ; The tall, dark horse stranger ; City of secession

Part II: During: city of sedition. The tempest bursting ; War! war!! war!!! ; New York to the rescue ; Immigrants join the fight ; The first to fall ; Seeing the elephant, or, The great skedaddle ; The hyenas of war ; The shoddy aristocracy ; We are coming, Father Abraham ; Three cheers for Ericsson ; I goes to fight mit Sigel ; The dead of Antietam ; Sambo's right to be kilt ; Burnside falls, Sickles rises ; Grafted into the army ; Dan Sickles, hero or villain? ; The volcano erupts ; Tweed to the rescue ; The fire in the rear ; New York City's burning ; Last acts ; A "hippodrome of sorrow"

Part III: After: city of gilt. The postwar boom ; Anything to beat Grant ; Scandals and scams ; Old soldiers

Epilogue.