Fort Abercrombie's headquarters building stood one-and-a-half stories tall with a porch extending along its front and appears in images of the fort as early as 1862. The fort's commanding officer and adjutant had their offices there, while upstairs contained a guest room and a room used for court martial proceedings. Women and children were also present there, reflecting the important part families played in the daily life of army officers on frontier military posts, even though U.S. Army regulations of the 1860s scarcely mentioned them. As officers moved from one fort to another, their families moved with them, but limits on personal furnishings often forced families to improvise with boards and sawhorses for dining tables and overturned crates and boxes for chairs. The commanding officer oversaw all operations at the frontier fort with the assistance of subordinate officers, and the rank of Fort Abercrombie's commanding officer varied depending on the number of troops stationed there. Notable commanding officers included Lieutenant Colonel John J. Abercrombie, whose troops first established the fort in 1858 and for whom it is named, Captain John Vander Horck, who was in command during the fort's siege by Dakota warriors in the Minnesota Indian War of 1862, and Major Marcus A. Reno, who commanded during the winter of 1876-77 after serving with the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.