Officers in Tents
Sometimes officers shared quarters on officers' row, three or four men to a house. Housing was assigned by rank and seniority within that rank. If a higher-ranking officer was transferred to the fort, he could bump a lower ranking officer out of the house. This was called "ranking out." If all homes were occupied, the lowest ranking officers (and their families, if they had them) lived in tents on the fort grounds.
Some officers put together more than one tent for their dwelling with another tent nearby to serve as a kitchen. These tents were treated as home and were equipped with furniture, décor, wood-burning stoves, and in some cases, wood floors. But with blowing snow in winter and oppressive summer heat, these campers were still "roughing it."
Courtesy hmdb.org
