English Camp, c. 1870

No further construction is recorded until 1867, when Bazelgette began complaining that the current living quarters had outlived their temporary nature. After a survey by the regional senior officer, it was agreed to let construction on a new quarters for the camp captain. Bazelgette would transfer before the new quarters were constructed. His replacement, Captain William Delacombe, arrived at Garrison Bay with his wife and three children. As the officers' family needs changed, so did construction needs at the camp. Following building of the quarters for Delacombe and his family, work began on quarters for one of the junior officers, who had married and whose family was also with him. Both contracts were let to area builders.

Between 1860 and 1867, many other structures were completed, including the blockhouse (guardhouse), the hospital, the commissary, a blacksmith shop, a stable, library/schoolroom, wharf and pier, flagpole, formal garden, sentry boxes, the cemetery, and wells. For a complete listing and identification of sites, refer to the historic base map for English Camp on page 85 and 110.

When Captain Pickett first landed American troops on the island in 1859, they set up a tent camp on the edge of Griffin Bay, near the Hudson's Bay Company wharf. Later, around July 30, Pickett moved the camp to the south side of the peninsula, next to a spring and away from the direct line of fire of the British naval guns in Griffin Bay.

Around August, the army began erecting some wooden structures at the camp, all constructed from materials taken from buildings dismantled at Fort Bellingham. [32] These structures included a barracks and hospital. With the arrival of Colonel Casey and more troops, the camp was moved again. Casey believed the site at the spring was too exposed to the wind and weather, and chose to move the camp to the north slope of the ridge above the HBC Company farm. Here there was a small stand of trees that would shelter the companies from the weather and provide a location on the ridge for the six guns brought off the Massachusetts.

On August 25, the army began construction of a fortification for the emplacement of eight 32-pound guns. The Redoubt, as it would later be called, provided coverage of water access to the southern tip of the island. [33] However, when General Scott arrived and the joint occupation was negotiated, Scott ordered a halt on construction of the Redoubt. The guns were placed back on the Massachusetts, and the army forces were reduced to one company. Five gun platforms constructed on the ridge now lay empty. The army men began calling it "Robert's gopher hole" after the army engineer who designed and supervised its construction, Lt. Henry M. Robert. [34]

No formal construction plans exist for Pickett's construction at the third and final site, but the written record indicates that officers' quarters, laundress' quarters, and a mess room and kitchen were constructed and a flagpole erected. [35] After Pickett's removal and the start of the American Civil War, construction plans were not a high priority. In 1865, buildings were freshly painted and a new arch constructed over the military cemetery.

In 1867, the same year that construction of more solid structures took place at English Camp, the U.S. Army began building better and more permanent structures. In 1859 when the joint occupation was negotiated and the detachments began construction of facilities, neither group realized that their stay would last so long. Both camps had built temporary structures and after six years were in need of improvements if troops were to remain.

To that end, the U.S. Army brought over more dismantled structures and materials from the now abandoned Fort Bellingham for use at American Camp. In all, two sets of officers' quarters, an adjuntant's office, noncommissioned officers' mess, a set of laundress' quarters, a new hospital, quartermaster storehouse, commissary storehouse, blacksmith shop, a two-story barn and stable, a granary, mess hall, and additions to other buildings were completed. [36]

Research indicates that the army built no less than 34 structures. Structures included the blockhouse/guardhouse, enlisted and officers' quarters, a bake house, barracks, messroom and kitchen, two hospitals, storehouses, a blacksmith shop, granary, carpenter shop, school and reading room, bath house, telegraph office, shoemaker shop, cemetery, roothouses, the flagstaff, and the Redoubt, among others. [37] For a complete listing and identification of sites, refer to the historic base map for American Camp on page 84 and 106.