Major General Kirby Smith chose five artillery batteries to be stationed at the forts as the Siege Train Battalion, consisting of the 26th, 27th, and 31st regiments, the 8th Battalion of Heavy Artillery, and the 2nd Field Battery, while the 5th and 7th cavalry regiments served nearby. In total, approximately 800 soldiers were on duty, and the forts were considered ready for any attack. Living conditions that winter were harsh: excessive rainfall caused the town of Alexandria to flood, and the cold was so intense that the ground froze during the first ten days of January 1865. To survive these conditions, the soldiers built wooden cabins in and around the circular earthwork enclosures of the forts. To assist the forts' defense, the Confederate ironclad ship Missouri arrived on April 4 and anchored across the river from Fort Randolph, covered in two thick layers of railroad iron and carrying three large guns to help defend the river and forts against Union attacks.