The fort proper was the bastioned work at the west end of Fort Cumberland, with four bastions and joining walls, four buildings for provisions, two guardrooms, the commander's quarters, the fort parade ground, the sally port, and the main gate. More facilities, four more gates, and barracks for 200 men stood at the east end, with additional barracks built farther out for extra men at times, and temporary earthworks raised on the hill to the northwest for added protection. Dress parades were held on the grand parade ground, where in 1794 President Washington reviewed troops assembled to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion. The Sabbath was observed, and regimental chaplains held religious services. Some Maryland privates received 8 pence per day plus clothes, arms, and other necessities. The Commissary House stood across the street, and soldiers serving as bakers for Mr. Lake, Commissary of Provisions for General Braddock, were excused from other duties as the commissary supplied the army. Each man on picket duty was allowed 1 gill of liquor spirits mixed with 3 gills of water per day. One of the tunnels leading from the fort emerged in the basement of the library building across the square. In August, 1755, Colonel George Washington was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Virginia Military Forces, inspected the military posts under his command including Fort Cumberland, and ordered a shorter and better road built from there to Winchester, Virginia. Washington maintained a headquarters there at various times, including January-March, 1757. For a time in 1758, his men, lacking military clothing, dressed in Indian type clothes. In the fall of 1756, two French spies came to plan the capture of Fort Cumberland; they were watched, arrested, convicted, and one was hanged outside the fort, while the other was sent to Annapolis and spared after revealing French information to Governor Sharpe. The fort was strengthened and improved during the winter.
