 Responding to lack of adequate hospital beds and housing for soldiers needed to protect the District, the Union commandeered University buildings, and by the time of President Abraham Lincoln's May 1861 visit to campus, 1,400 Union Army troops were stationed in temporary quarters there.Of these 1,300 were from the 69th Infantry Regiment, which established itself in Maguire Hall from May 4, 1861 to June when the unit was replaced by the 79th New York Volunteer Infantry.The occupation ended in July when the unit left to fight in the First Battle of Bull Run, but the university remained home to soldiers as an infirmary for the remainder of the war.