From The Washington Post:
Members of the National Guard were spotted sleeping in the halls of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday morning, marking the first time the building has been used as a barracks since the Civil War.
Photos of the National Guard members, who have been deployed at the Capitol after last week’s riot, began making the rounds on social media Wednesday. One photo shows National Guard members sleeping on the floor near a bust of Abraham Lincoln.
On the wall next to them is a plaque commemorating the Civil War troops that were quartered in the Capitol in 1861.
“This tablet records the fact that the following troops were quartered in the United States Capitol in response to President Lincoln’s call for volunteers, April 15, 1861,” reads the plaque, which honors soldiers from Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.
During the war, construction on the Capitol extensions was suspended, and the building “was briefly used as a military barracks, hospital and bakery,” according to the Architect of the Capitol.
