To better understand wartime Natchez, visit Longwood at 140 Lower Woodville Rd. It is eloquent testimony to the devastating impact of the war on the cotton economy of the Deep South. The story of the hardships of the family who lived there “reared in the lap of luxury and reduced to poverty,” has all the pathos of Gone with the Wind but with a twist: the family who lost everything was loyal to the Union. Open daily, 9:00-5:00. Admission is $5 for adults, $2.50 for children six to seventeen; free for children under six. For information phone 601-442-5193.
Windsor Ruins, a short detour from the Natchez Trace Pkwy., is a ghostly skeleton of twenty-three Corinthian columns. They once were part of a great mansion on the Mississippi River, built by slave labor between 1859 and 1861. During the war the roof was used by Confederates as an observation deck; later the house was a Federal field hospital. The ruins are on Rte. 552, ten miles west of Port Gibson. Open daily, dawn to dusk. Admission is free. For information phone 601-437-4551.
Monmouth
Natchez, Mississippi
The handsome mansion called Monmouth is a tribute to John A. Quitman, who once was considered the most popular man in the country. He was a hero-general of the Mexican War, then governor of Mississippi, and later a congressman.
In 1826, Quitman purchased Monmouth for his bride. Their chamber, now a guest room, has a massive four-poster tester bed, Oriental carpeting, and a fireplace. He died in this room in 1858, after an illness caused, reportedly, by being poisoned while attending a banquet for President Buchanan.
Monmouth is a mini-museum. On display is a sword presented to Quitman by President Polk in honor of his bravery and leadership in battle, and other mementos of a distinguished career.
There are seven rooms in the main house, four in the slave quarters, and seventeen more in buildings throughout the garden area. All are handsomely appointed with canopied beds and armoires. Breakfast is served in the Marguerite Guercio reception room, as well as in the garden area.
Monmouth manages to be charming and historically fascinating at the same time, no mean feat even in Natchez, where charm and history are waiting around every corner.
Address: 36 Melrose Ave., Natchez, MS 39120; tel: 601-442-5852 or 800-828-4531; fax: 601-446-7762.
Accommodations: Twenty-eight rooms including ten suites, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, phones and TV in rooms, dinner available in the mansion nightly, fishing pond on 26-acre grounds.
Rates: $$$. All major credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under fourteen, no pets, restricted smoking.
Dunleith
Natchez, Mississippi
This is everyone’s dream of a Southern plantation house—a massive white raised cottage with Greek revival details surrounded by twenty-eight columns, restored to perfection and now a National Historic Monument. It stands on forty landscaped acres with stables and other outbuildings.
Dunleith was built in 1856, when cotton was king. The house is almost a museum: French Zuber wallpaper in the dining room, V’Soske carpet in the front parlor, and a Louis XV ormolu-mounted Linke table in the front parlor. Guests are greeted with lemonade, and baskets of snacks are in their beautifully furnished rooms. A plantation breakfast is served in the old poultry house, which now has exposed beams and big windows. At night Dunleith’s grounds are lighted to duplicate the romance of moonlight.
Address: 84 Homochitto St., Natchez, MS 39120; tel: 601-446-8500 or 800-433-2445.
Accommodations: Eleven guest rooms, eight in the courtyard wing, three in the main house, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, parking on grounds, TV in rooms, house tour.
Rates: $$-$$$. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.
Restrictions: No children under eighteen, no pets, restricted smoking.
Windsor Ruins
Port Gibson, Mississippi
Twenty-three towering Corinthian columns evoke powerful feelings for the South that was consumed by the Civil War. They stand here, near the extinct town of Bruinsburg, itself a victim of the war.
The Windsor mansion, built by slave labor between 1859 and 1861, was near the place where Grant’s army crossed the river to march on Jackson, Mississippi. Both sides found Windsor useful: Confederates used its high roof as an observation platform; Federal soldiers later used the house as a field hospital.
The house survived the war, but the columns were the only survivors of a fire in 1890. In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain recalled that when he piloted a Mississippi River steamboat, he used Windsor as a landmark.
The Windsor Ruins, on Rte. 552, ten miles west of Port Gibson, are open daily, dawn to dusk. The ruins are unattended. Admission is free. For information phone 601-437-4351.
Oak Square Plantation
Port Gibson, Mississippi
On his way to Vicksburg in 1863, Grant marched his 25,000 troops through this small town, remarking that it was “too beautiful to burn.” Oak Square, built around 1850, was one of the reasons the town was so beautiful.
Oak Square is now an inn owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. William D. Lum, who enjoy regaling guests with tales of the war. Mr. Lum’s great-grandfather, a Confederate officer, was killed in the war in 1864 and his servant, who traveled with him, walked 250 miles to tell the family of his master’s death.
Two Union generals stayed at Mr. Lum’s ancestral home nearby, and thirty years later two pieces of family silver were returned by a Yankee soldier who camped there.
At the Mississippi, seven miles to the west, is the Grand Gulf Military Monument, the site of the opening shots of the Battle of Port Gibson.
Oak Square, with thirty rooms, is the town’s largest and most palatial mansion. It has been restored and furnished with family heirlooms and contains a collection of Civil War memorabilia. The manicured grounds have a courtyard, fountain, gazebo, and, of course, massive oaks. Oak Square has been awarded four diamonds by the AAA.
Address: 1207 Church St., Port Gibson, MS 39150; tel: 601-437-4350 or 800-729-0240; fax: 601-437-5768.
Accommodations: Twelve guests rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, house and grounds tour, canopied beds, arrangements made for motor-coach tours of the area.
Rates: $$-$$$. All major credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: Children by prior approval, no pets, no smoking.
Vicksburg Battlefield
Vicksburg, Mississippi
If the Union could control the Mississippi River, then Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana would be cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. But to control the Mississippi, Vicksburg would have to be captured, and Vicksburg, situated on a bluff two hundred feet above the river, was known as the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy.”
For months, General Ulysses S. Grant attempted to get at Vicksburg from the opposite side of the river. His army chopped through forests and swamps and dug canals. All attempts to cross the river failed.
Grant audaciously marched his 44,000 troops down the western bank of the Mississippi. An attempt to cross the river was repulsed, but the Union troops were able to cross at Bruinsburg on April 30, 1863. Then the army marched fifteen miles northeast and took Jackson, the state capital, on July 21, 1863.
Then Grant proceeded to defeat General John C. Pemberton’s forces at Champion Hill and Big Black River Bridge. Coordinating his attack with the gunboats of Admiral David Porter, which were able to fire on the city from the river, his army surrounded the city.
During the siege many of the townspeople moved into caves in the nearby hills. The siege lasted forty-seven days, from May 22 to July 4. When Pemberton surrendered to Grant, President Lincoln said gratefully, “The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea.”
Vicksburg National Military Park borders the eastern and northern sections of the city. The entrance and Visitor Center are on Clay Street (U.S. 80), exit 4B off of I-20.
Audiovisual aids and exhibits at the center portray the history of the campaign. A sixteen-mile self-guided driving tour begins at the center. There are monuments all along the way, but the only surviving structure in the park is the Shirley House, which Union troops called the “white house.” During the siege, it was the headquarters of the 45th Illinois Infantry. The park is open daily, 8:00-5:00, except Christmas. Admission is $4 per car. For information phone 601-636-0583.
Just off the tour road is the USS Cairo Museum, featuring a gunboat that was sunk by a mine during the siege, and later retrieved from the river and restored. An audiovisual program tells of the sinking and the role of gunboats in the war. Open daily, hours seasonal, except Christmas. Admission is free. For information phone 601-636-2199.
In the city, the Old Court House Museum, Court Square, 1008 Cherry St., was where Grant raised the U.S. flag on July 4, 1863, signifying the end of the siege. In the Confederate Room are weapons and documents of the siege. Open daily, hours seasonal, except on major holidays. For information phone 601-636-0741.
The Vanishing Glory is a thirty-minute wide-screen audiovisual presentation dramatizing the siege of the city, based on the diaries and other writings of people who lived through it. It is shown daily on the hour at the Strand Theatre, 717 Clay St. Admission is $5 for adults, $3 for students, free for children under three; group rates and special showtimes available upon request. For information call 601-634-1863.
To see all the sites associated with Grant’s brilliant campaign and the siege of Vicksburg, take two or three days and follow The Vicksburg Campaign Trail. The stops include Big Black Battlefield, Champion Hill Battlefield, the Battlefield and Confederate Cemetery in Raymond, the Grand Gulf Military Monument Park, the Jackson Battlefield, the Vicksburg National Military Park, and the Windsor Ruins. “A Guide to the Campaign & Siege of Vicksburg” describes a self-guided tour of these sites and is available free from the Mississippi Division of Tourism Development, PO Box 1705, Ocean Springs, MS 39566, or by phoning 800-WARMEST.
Cedar Grove
Vicksburg, Mississippi
When Admiral Farragut’s squadron steamed up the Mississippi River and fired on Vicksburg, several cannonballs struck this Greek revival mansion. One smashed the front door and another lodged in the door casing between the twin parlors, where it remains.
After the city surrendered, General Grant stayed in this house for three days. The bed he slept in is still in use in the General Grant Suite. This mansion was built from 1840 to 1858, and many of the original furnishings remain, including several monumental gold-leaf pier mirrors, the silver, and tableware.
Hoop-skirted ladies conduct tours of the house, telling fascinating stories of the people who lived here during the war. The inn has a restaurant in the main house, which is open for dinner every evening except Monday. It is also the setting for the leisurely plantation breakfast.
Address: 2200 Oak St., Vicksburg, MS 19180; tel: 601-636-1605; fax: 601-634-6126.
Accommodations: Thirteen double rooms and twelve suites, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, phone and TV in all rooms, swimming pool, hot tub, tennis court, and croquet.
Rates: $$-$$$, including house tour and full Southern breakfast. American Express, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, restricted smoking.
Rosswood
Lorman, Mississippi
On July 4 and 5, 1864, a regimental-sized battle was fought near here, called the Battle of Coleman’s Plantation by the North and the Battle of the Cotton Bales by the South. This mansion was shelled, the kitchen building was hit and destroyed, and the wounded from both sides were brought in and cared for by Marybella Wade, the mistress of the house.
According to a local legend, the ghost of a Union officer who died in the battle appears from time to time in Rosswood, greeting guests with a cheery “Hello!”
The 1857 Greek revival house is a Mississippi landmark and listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The rooms are spacious, with fifteen-foot ceilings and heart-of-pine floors, and are beautifully decorated with antiques. The architect, David Shroder, also designed Windsor, the ruins of which are nearby (see this page).
After the war, Rosswood was the residence for a number of years of Mrs. Elizabeth Hamer, the favorite niece of Jefferson Davis. Innkeepers Walt and Jean Hylander point out that Rosswood still is a plantation, although the cash crop now is not cotton, but Christmas trees.
Address: Hwy. 552 East, Lorman, MS 39096; tel: 601-437-4215 or 800-533-5889; fax: 601-437-6888; E-mail: [email protected]. Rosswood is midway between Natchez and Vicksburg, just east of U.S. 61. From the Natchez Trace take the Rte. 552 exit.
Accommodations: Four double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, ceiling fans, phones, color TV with VCR in rooms, house tour, swimming pool and whirlpool spa.
Rates: $$$. All credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, restricted smoking.
Rosemont Plantation
Woodville, Mississippi
This working plantation was the boyhood home of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederacy. The handsome planter’s cottage was built in 1810 by his father, Samuel Davis, who brought his wife and ten children here from Kentucky, where Jefferson, the youngest child, was born.
After attending nearby Jefferson College, Jefferson Davis entered West Point in 1824. In 1835 he married Sarah Taylor, resigned from the army, and became a planter near Vicksburg. A few months later, Sarah died of malaria and Davis would spend a decade as a near recluse, mourning her death.
In 1845 Davis married Varina Howell, who was from Natchez. He became a U.S. congressman in 1845. He resigned to lead Mississippi troops in the Mexican War, emerged a hero, and was appointed to the U.S. Senate. He served as secretary of war under President Franklin Pierce. After having returned to the Senate, he resigned his seat when Mississippi seceded and was elected president of the Confederacy.
Five generations of Davises lived at Rosemont until it was sold in 1895. Many furnishings are either original to the house or belonged to various members of the Davis family. Near the house is the rose garden planted by Jane Davis, for which the plantation was named. Beyond the cottage are split-rail fences, outbuildings typical of a nineteenth-century working plantation, and the Davis family cemetery. Jefferson Davis, however, is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
A cabin near the house has been made into comfortable guest quarters. Afternoon drinks are served on the gallery, and guests are given a tour of the house and the plantation. Several nature trails wind through the property.
Address: Hwy. 24 East, PO Box 814, Woodville, MS 39669; tel: 601-888-6809; fax: 601-888-3606.
Accommodations: A cottage with living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bath.
Amenities: Afternoon drinks on the gallery, house tour, nature trails.
Rates: $$-$$$. Visa, MasterCard.
Restrictions: No pets.
LOUISIANA
Lloyd Hall
Cheneyville, Louisiana
One of the owners of the insurance company Lloyds of London once had a ne’er-do-well son, William, to whom they gave a handsome sum of money, on the provision that he change the spelling of his famous surname and emigrate to America, never to return. He wound up here, where in the 1820s he built this Federal Georgian manor.
Union troops, who burned most of the town in 1864, believed Lloyd had lied to them and hanged him near the house. His English relatives, who undoubtedly predicted he would end badly, were not disappointed.
In 1948, the Fitzgeralds bought the 640-acre property for grazing land, only to discover the old manor, covered with brambles and undergrowth. Now restored, it is a showplace, completely furnished with period antiques.
The Fitzgeralds live in the manor, and guests stay in the renovated outbuildings. Beulah Dav
is takes guests through the house and tells them of the ghost of William Lloyd, who still oversees the property, and Harry, a young Union soldier who died on the third floor. Harry, it seems, plays the violin on moonlit nights.
Address: 298 Lloyd Bridge Rd., Cheneyville, LA 71325; tel: 318-776-5641 or 800-240-8135; fax: 318-776-5886.
Accommodations: Four guest rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, swimming pool, mountain bikes; all rooms have wood-burning fireplaces. Wine or soft drinks on arrival.
Rates: $$-$$$, including continental breakfast. All major credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: No pets, restricted smoking.
Nottoway Plantation
White Castle, Louisiana
Nottoway is the largest antebellum plantation mansion in the South, and an outstanding example of the opulent lifestyle enjoyed by the planter aristocracy before the war. It has three stories, sixty-six rooms, and encloses 53,000 square feet.
The owner, John Randolph, a planter from Nottoway County, Virginia, had seven thousand acres of sugar cane, and some seven hundred field slaves and fifty-seven house slaves. In 1862, as Union troops moved up the Mississippi, Randolph took his slaves and went to Texas to raise cotton.
Mrs. Randolph remained at Nottoway. When a Union gunboat began firing on the house, she went out on the balcony to face down the Yankees. By chance, the boat’s captain had been a guest at Nottoway before the war, recognized Mrs. Randolph, and ordered the firing stopped. Federal troops later encamped on the grounds, but never bothered the house.
Today there are guest rooms in the main mansion and the overseer’s cottage, which overlooks sculpted gardens and a duck pond. All have four-poster beds, armoires, and fresh flowers. At Nottoway you magically become Rhett or Scarlett. A restaurant on the premises serves lunch and dinner. For an extra charge, guests can dine in the mansion’s dining room.
Chuck Lawliss Page 13
