After General George McClellan arrived in Washington to take over the routed Northern volunteers in the wake of the disaster at Bull Run, he wrote to his wife:

I have found no army to command—merely a collection of regiments cowering on the banks of the Potomac.

In spite of his drilling and morale-building efforts, the glamorous commander had to order the Provost Guard to sweep through the many brothels and saloons that filled the capital, arresting officers in places like The Blue Goose, The Cottage By the Sea, Madame Wilton's Private Residence for Ladies, and Madame Russell's Bake Oven. By February 1862 he favored prohibition for the Army of the Potomac.

No one evil agent so much obstructs this army as the degrading vice of drunkenness. It is the cause of by far the greater part of the disorders which are examined by courts-martial. It is impossible to estimate the benefits that would accrue to the service from the adoption of a resolution on the part of officers to set their men an example of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors. It would be worth 50,000 men to the armies of the United States.