Published in Windlesora 07 (1988)
© WLHG
Windlesora No 3 contained an illustration of a ruined mansion named Windsor in Mississippi, USA. Early in 1988 the opportunity arose to make the long journey to the site of this the largest ante-bellum (pre Civil War) mansion and to delve further into its history, although much of the story has been lost.
The ruins of Windsor at Port Gibson in Claiborne County lie east of the great Mississippi River and south of the Confederate fortress of Vicksburg. Since 1817 the area has been in the state of Mississippi, and before that time was part of Georgia, being held by the British during the early part of the War of Independence but was lost in 1781. The area grew cotton by slave labour, and in 1859 a rich planter named Smith Coffee Daniell II, who owned much of what has become Mississippi and Louisiana, began to build his mansion, which was completed in 1861.
Shortly afterwards the Civil War began and Windsor found itself right in the midst of the fighting. Clearing the Mississippi River of Confederate (Southern) forces became a prime Yankee (Union) objective. General Ulysees Grant marched south from the upper Mississippi passing Vicksburg, down through Louisiana and eventually managed to cross the river at Bruinsberg. The army reached nearby Windsor at the beginning of May 1863 but the lady of the house managed to persuade the commander to spare her new mansion, despite their ‘scorched earth’ policy. The Union forces swept on to Jackson, capital of Mississippi, which they destroyed, then turned westward back to Vicksburg which was besieged from May 18th until July 4th 1863. The entrenchments where the battle raged in muzzle to muzzle combat is now a National Memorial and is protected against defacement.
Unable to export cotton, Windsor languished and after the war fell prey to ‘carpet baggers’. Considering that it was situated right in the midst of the battle field it is perhaps surprising that the mansion had survived at all. But survival was relatively short-lived: in 1890 the mansion was destroyed by fire and twenty three great Corinthian columns are all that remain of this most lavish expression of classical revival architecture.
The mansion was rectangular, surrounded by columned galleries on the first and second floors. A high parapet concealed the hipped roof and dormer windows which lit the roof space containing the copper tanks which held the water for the two bathrooms – a novelty indeed. A windowed cupola decorated by small Corinthian columns surmounted the roof. An annexe contained the kitchen and service areas and further bedrooms. Windsor combined Classical Revival architecture with modern technology: the gallery balustrade, parts of which survive in situ, and the ornate Corinthian capitals were of cast iron. The great columns were not solid stone but covered in stucco. Following the great fire one of the magnificent cast iron stairways and six of the gallery balustrades were removed and re-used in the chapel of Alcorn State University.
After the fire the mansion was allowed to fall into decay with vegetation growing unchecked. This may have enhanced the ‘romantic’ atmosphere but also aided the deterioration process. Souvenir hunters and vandals did the rest. A few years ago the ruins were cleaned and made safe by the Port Gibson-Claiborne County Historical Society, and in 1974 they were donated to Mississippi State by the Magruder family. Less than a mile away is the Freeland/Daniell Family Cemetery containing monuments of the original owners of Windsor.
Gordon Cullingham
Further reading.
DOUGLAS, Ed Polk Architecture in Claiborne County, Mississippi. Mississippi Dept of Archives & History Jackson 1974
We gratefully acknowledge the above book as the source for the photographs in this article. This conjectural restoration shows the west (principal) elevation of Windsor
Windsor Local History Group 