At the peak of the Civil War, as many as 1,000 soldiers were garrisoned at Fort Ethan Allen. The men who built and defended the fort belonged to volunteer regiments recruited from New York, Massachusetts, and other northern states. While stationed there, troops saw little action, but continually trained, maintained their weapons, and felled trees to keep a clear line of sight toward Chain Bridge and Leesburg Turnpike. For soldiers who were often kin or pre-war acquaintances, the regiment became a family away from home, and when not working they played games, read, and occasionally visited nearby sights. Heavy artillery troops lived in barracks built just north of the fort near present-day Military Road, while infantrymen camped in tents farther away. Officers often hosted wives, children, or relatives during the winter season, and forts also employed authorized laundresses, often soldiers' wives. Fort Ethan Allen first housed troops in tents inside the parapet walls, but later barracks, officers' quarters, mess houses, and cook houses were built outside the walls. Black crepe draped the fort's administrative center as the nation mourned President Lincoln's death on April 15, 1865.