As Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Confederate Second Corps advanced on Harrisburg in June 1863, Union Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch, charged with the defense of the city, recognized the need for defensive fortifications on Bridgeport Heights. Soon after Couch arrived in Harrisburg, local citizens were encouraged to volunteer to build the defenses, and on June 15 work began in earnest with a reported 1,000 men assisting. By the following morning, however, only a fraction of the civilian volunteers remained, and their places were filled by workers from the Pennsylvania Railroad and Canal, who received a daily wage of $1.25. Built hastily by a workforce with little military experience, the fortifications had numerous potentially deadly defects in battle. The main earthwork, christened Fort Washington, measured about two hundred by six hundred yards but was placed on the lower, militarily unfavorable portion of Bridgeport Heights. To protect it, a smaller earthwork called Fort Couch was erected a short distance farther west at what is now the intersection of 8th and Indiana Streets. Camp Couch, separate from Fort Couch, was established between the two forts, and many New York National Guard and Pennsylvania Militia regiments were encamped there throughout the summer of 1863. The steepness of Bridgeport Heights made the hill a treacherous camp location: by one account, eight horses and twenty men were required to haul just one cannon up to the encampment, soldiers slid down the slope during sleep, and the difficult terrain complicated ordinary tasks such as drill.