It had been five days since the Union rout at First Manassas. The Federal forces that had been flowing steadily into Washington showed the terrible signs of fatigue, disheartenment, and low morale. Drunken soldiers roamed the streets of the city, many weary officers filled saloons and high class hotels, and the terrified civilians were preparing for the absolute worst: a Confederate invasion of the capital. At that point, the Rebel army was encamped a mere 25 miles southwest of Washington at Centreville, Virginia (Bailey, 1983). Washington itself was in serious danger of attack. "Some fortifications were in place on the far side of the Potomac, where Federals still controlled a narrow strip of Virginia, but the approaches to Washington on the Maryland side were inadequately guarded" (Bailey, 1983, p. 8).
George B. McClellan arrived in Washington on July 26, 1861, with the knowledge that the President had an important assignment for him. Lincoln turned over to the 34 year-old general full command of all Federal troops in and about Washington. He was charged with fully protecting the capital from a Southern invasion and rebuilding the army in preparation for a march on Richmond, the new Confederate capital.
McClellan had a difficult task ahead of him. Though the Union army consisted of around 51,000 troops, roughly 2/3 of those men were available for duty, but were poorly trained and ill-equipped. "I found no army to command," McClellan reflected later. And he noted that "the city was almost in condition to have been taken by a dash of a regiment of cavalry" (Bailey, 1983, p. 8). Though the capital was not quite as vulnerable as Mac thought (the Confederates lacked the organization and resources to attack at this point, and McClellan over-estimated the size of the enemy force by a factor of seven), he still had a legitimate task ahead of him.
George McClellan wasted no time to show that he was up to the assignment in which he was charged. He quickly appointed a provost marshal to head 1,000 army regulars that would act as military police. He sent all troops threatening mutiny to prison. He put together a large staff of no fewer than 19 officers to assist in overseeing training and organization. McClellan appointed a chief of artillery to expand the poorly equipped batteries that had just 30 guns, a medical director to organize hospitals and proper sanitation management, and a quartermaster general to oversee the requisition of supplies. And to coordinate the duties of his large staff, McClellan appointed a chief of staff, a position new to the United States Army (Bailey, 1983).
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