 They raided small cargo ships in the North River of New York Harbor during the post-Civil War period of the 1860s.After a time the ocean liners and major shipping vessels around the Manhattan west side dockyards became so well protected that the gang moved upriver.In 1869, under the leadership of Sadie the Goat, the gang stole a sloop, and soon began raiding merchant ships and homes along the Hudson River, from the Harlem River as far as Poughkeepsie and Albany, New York.