WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, CONNECTED WITH THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, FEELING THE NECESSITY OF SOME SAFER GUARD AGAINST THE EVIL OF INTEMPERANCE SO PREVALENT AMONG US, AND BELIEVING THAT TOTAL ABSTINENCE ALONE WILL PROVE EFFECTUAL. . . I WILL DO ALL IN MY POWER TO PROMOTE TEMPERANCE AMONG THE OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY

Washington, D.C.: McGill & Witherow, 1860. Attractive oblong broadside, 7" x 8-1/2." Handcolored illustration of Screaming Eagle carrying a banner, "Union & Temperance." Text, in several type styles, surrounded by decorative border. Names of officers in blue type. Very Good plus.

Isaac Groff, who signs his name at the bottom, made the pledge to abstain from all alcoholic beverages. "Signing this Pledge constitutes one a Member of the U.S.A. Temperance Union." The Union's President was Major General Silas Casey, a career army officer who had fought with distinction in American Wars. Two officers, Edward H. Uniac and Wm. Ballantyne, had been enthusiastically involved in the Temperance Movement.
"Recovering alcoholics who used the temperance lectern as a medium of self - cure often relapsed due to over - exertion and exhaustion. Edward Uniac ignored his friends' pleas that he take a rest on the grounds that, 'I feel safer from my old enemy when I am fighting in the field of active work.' Plagued with continuing relapses, Uniac died in 1869 of an overdose of opium, bromides and whiskey while on a temperance lecture tour in Massachusetts." [Online, The History of Recovered People as Wounded Healers, page 6. In, Collected Papers of William L. White.]
When the Civil War broke out William Ballantyne, who directed the Washington DC YMCA, "immediately sprang to work providing tracts and reading material to soldiers in the City, visiting the camps, and running prayer meetings" [Nishikawa, PhD. dissertation at Liberty University, The U.S. Army, Temperance Advocacy, and Lessons Learned to 1873, page 126].
Not located on OCLC although VA Commonwealth U has a copy matching our broadside.