Because no contemporary maps or drawings of Ashby's Fort have survived, archaeological excavations and George Washington's construction orders provide the best evidence for its layout, construction, and daily life. Washington ordered Lt. John Bacon to direct the building of a quadrangular fort ninety feet wide with bastions and to decide where barracks and a magazine should be placed. Archaeological discoveries crucial to understanding the fort include four vertical post-filled stockade trenches and dark linear stains left by three of the four horizontal log corner bastions. The evidence shows that the stockade walls were made of round or split vertical logs, with larger and more deeply buried squared logs at their ends connecting to the horizontal bastion logs. Linear stains within two bastions likely came from floor supports, room dividers, or firing platform supports, indicating that the bastions contained open rooms that may have served as troop barracks, stables, or storage areas.