In January 1864, McGowan's troops of the South Carolina Brigade constructed a camp from logs cut in the surrounding woods. The camp included larger huts for officers and smaller huts for enlisted soldiers, arranged as a company street. Archaeological evidence from the encampment shows that the hut interiors contained only the barest essentials, with fireplaces as the only source of heat on frigid nights. Typically, three to four men slept in each hut on wooden platforms covered with straw mattresses, and one account recalled that they slept spoon-style, with the man in the middle warmest while those on the outside risked frostbite.