Fort Knox never had soldiers living within its walls except for a few weeks during the Spanish American War in 1898, when some Connecticut Volunteers probably camped on the parade ground or in adjacent rooms. During the Civil War, when the largest number of soldiers were assigned to Fort Knox, the fort was still under construction and not fit for occupation. When 30 soldiers arrived in 1863 and found no place to live, they asked the quartermaster's office in Augusta for funds to build a temporary wooden barracks building. That building was probably located on the other side of present-day Route 174 and remained the home of the fort's Civil War soldiers until they were discharged in November 1865. The major portion of the permanent living quarters inside the fort was not built. As planned, it would have been a long, three-story structure with a cellar, standing over the area where storage vaults in the parade ground are visible today. As Capt. Thomas Lincoln Casey described in 1862, the planned barracks would have had a kitchen on both the north and south ends and space for laundresses to work in the attic. The sleeping rooms would have been heated by stoves and had walls of painted, pressed brick. The barracks would have been connected by walkways to rooms built under the terreplein, including privies on the bottom level and washrooms in the upper rooms to the left of the bakery. How many soldiers these barracks could have housed is unknown, though forts like Fort Knox generally provided quarters for only a small standing army, with temporary quarters added if more soldiers were assigned during a conflict. Historical research has not revealed why the barracks was never built, though money was scarce and likely directed toward completing as many cannon emplacements as possible, and the fort's engineers may ultimately have found more advantages in a permanent barracks building outside the parade ground.