Before developing military spirit, the men in Banks' division endured severe hardships near Washington D. C., including shortages of clothing, shelter, food, and clean water, while cold weather and picket duty added to their suffering. Yet camp life was not entirely bleak, as Union troops tried to recreate a sense of home by laying out camp streets like those in New England towns, building ovens for fresh bread, heating their tents, and filling the encampment with lights, campfires, and bands. During Banks' encampment, more soldiers died from disease than from battle wounds, with illnesses such as typhoid, measles, dysentery, pneumonia, and tuberculosis proving especially dangerous, particularly for men from isolated farm areas who lacked immunity to communicable disease. In the fall of 1861, the presence of many troops in Darnestown drew journalists and regimental historians who recorded the town and its residents in often unflattering terms, while the war also divided local families, as Maryland residents fought on both sides and some households were permanently broken by enlistment and death in opposing armies. The occupation also damaged surrounding land and property, as soldiers took needed materials such as fence wood from the area.