BeauvoirJefferson Davis and his family spent the last ten years of his life at this estate on the Gulf of Mexico. After his release from imprisonment at Fort Monroe, Virginia, he accepted the offer of Mrs. Sarah Dorsey, a family friend, to stay at Beauvoir, so named for its beautiful view of the Gulf.
At first Davis stayed in a cottage on the grounds, then two years later he purchased the property and was joined by his wife, Varina, and daughter Winnie. It was here that he wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.
After Davis’s death, Beauvoir was used as a rest home for Confederate veterans, many of whom are buried in a cemetery on the grounds. Also in the cemetery is the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier.
Beauvoir, 2244 Beach Blvd., Biloxi, MS 39531, is open September through March, daily, 9:00-4:00; April through August, daily, 9:00-5:00. A museum contains mementos of Davis’s public life and Confederate artifacts. Admission is $7.50 for adults, $6.75 for seniors, active military personnel, and AAA members, and $4.50 for students six to sixteen, free for children under six. For information phone 601-388-1313.
Brice’s Cross Roads and Tupelo BattlefieldsThey were minor battles, skirmishes really, remembered chiefly because they demonstrated the military genius of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the most feared of all Confederate cavalry leaders.
Forrest was born in poverty, educated himself, became a successful slave trader and plantation owner, joined the army as a private, rose to the rank of lieutenant general, and is best remembered for his philosophy of warfare: “War means fightin’ and fightin’ means killin’.” He applied this belief with imagination and ferocity.
He became famous early in the war. He led his regiment through Grant’s lines to escape from Fort Donelson. Time after time, he led successful raids behind enemy lines. But he was far more than a raider, which he clearly demonstrated at Brice’s Cross Roads. There, in a head-on engagement, he inflicted one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the U.S. Army.
In the spring of 1864, as General William T. Sherman drove his army south toward Atlanta, Forrest repeatedly struck at his supply line. Sherman sent General Samuel Sturgis with eight thousand troops into Mississippi to stop Forrest. Learning of this, Forrest concentrated his 3,500 troopers along the railroad near Brice’s Cross Roads.
On the morning of June 10, 1864, Forrest surprised Sturgis, sending the Union force into a chaotic retreat toward Memphis. Forrest doggedly pursued the Union force for twenty-two miles. Sturgis lost 223 killed, 394 wounded, and 623 captured. Forrest captured sixteen of his eighteen guns, and the entire train of 250 vehicles, complete with 184 horses, rations, and ammunition.
The next month, Sherman gave orders “to make up a force and go out to follow Forrest to the death, if it costs $10,000 and breaks the Treasury.” With fourteen thousand men, General A. J. Smith marched to Tupelo and built strong defensive works.
Forrest attacked Smith’s position on July 14 but took heavy losses, and suffered a painful wound in the foot. Although holding the advantage, Smith, fearful that he was running out of supplies, lost his nerve and ordered a retreat.
After the war, Sherman summed up the accomplishments of the brilliant field commander: “I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side.”
Brice’s Cross Roads Battlefield is six miles west of Baldwyn on MS 340, and twenty-five miles southwest of Tupelo. The park is small, but affords a view of much of the scene of action. There are no facilities at the park.
Tupelo National Battlefield has not been preserved but the engagement is commemorated at the one-acre park. Here the Confederates formed to attack the Union position. It is on Rte. 6, about a mile west of the intersection with U.S. 45. The park is unmanned, but at the Tupelo Visitor Center, a mile west of the battlefield, interpreters answer questions about the battle. (A more popular historic site in Tupelo is the house where Elvis Presley was born.) For information phone 601-680-4025 or 800-305-7417.
South of Tupelo, between West Point and Columbus on Hwy 50, is the Waverley Plantation Mansion, a National Historic Landmark Greek revival home. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was a friend and frequent visitor of the owner, Colonel George Hampton Young. During the war, Forrest spent three weeks recuperating here, living in the Egyptian Room and using it as his headquarters. Waverley has twenty acres of landscaped gardens with peacocks and black swans. Open daily; hours are seasonal. Admission is $7.50 for adults, children under six free. For information phone 601-494-1399.
The Mockingbird InnThe Mockingbird Inn is a good place to make your headquarters in this interesting area. Innkeepers Jim and Sandy Gilmer named the inn after the state bird and decorated their guest rooms to suggest their favorite places—Mackinac Island, Paris, Athens, Venice, Africa, Florida, and Bavaria. The big house is comfortable and conveniently located, and breakfast is a joy.
The Tupelo battlefield is not preserved, but the one-acre Tupelo National Battlefield commemorates the engagement. (Rte. 6; 601-842-1572.) Also of interest is the Tupelo Museum (Rte. 6, 601-841-6438), which exhibits Civil War weapons and relics, archaeological finds, Indian artifacts, a log cabin, and other examples of indigenous architecture, including a one-room schoolhouse and a country store.
Address: 305 N. Gloster St., Tupelo, MS 38801; tel: 601-841-0286; fax: 601-840-4158.
Accommodations: Seven double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, phones and cable TV in rooms.
Rates: $$. Visa, MasterCard, and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under ten, no smoking.
Curlee HouseGenerals favored this handsome 1857 Victorian house. At various times, Braxton Bragg, John Bell Hood, and Henry Halleck used it as their headquarters. Now restored, the house is a museum containing antebellum furniture, decorative objects, and Civil War memorabilia. The Corinth Civil War Visitor Center is located at the rear of the house.
Before the occupation of Corinth, General P. G. T. Beauregard stayed at the 1856 Fish Pond House, 708 Kilpatrick St., which now is a private home. General Albert S. Johnston, who was mortally wounded at Shiloh, made his headquarters at Rose Cottage, U.S. 45 at Fillmore St., and his body was brought here to lie in state after the battle. Rose Cottage also is a private home.
In the Battle of Corinth, General Beauregard, realizing how badly his Confederates were outnumbered, ordered a nighttime evacuation by railroad south toward Tupelo. To fool the Federals, when the empty trains rolled into town for the evacuation, the rebels cheered and bugles sounded as if reinforcements had arrived. The next morning the Federals found an empty town.
The Confederates attempted to recapture Corinth the following October, but were repulsed, with heavy casualties. Battery Robinette, on W. Linden St., was the site of the heaviest fighting.
The Curlee House, 705 Jackson St., is open daily; hours are seasonal. Admission is $2.50 for adults, $1.50 for children. For information phone 601-287-9501.
The General’s QuartersThe junction of two major railroads made this northeastern Mississippi town an important transit point for Confederate troops and supplies. In May 1862, more than 128,000 Federal troops surrounded the town, and the badly outnumbered Confederates left by train for Tupelo. That fall a Confederate attempt to retake the town was thrown back with heavy casualties.
This comfortable Victorian house wasn’t built until 1870, but it is in the heart of the town’s historic district, and Shiloh is just twenty-two miles to the north. Luke and Charlotte Doehner have decorated their inn tastefully with period antiques, and with advance notice will prepare dinner for guests. The self-guided Historic Corinth Walking Tour is a must. Pick up a map at the Visitors Center at the rear of the Curlee House, just down the street from the inn.
Address: 924 Fillmore St., Corinth, MS 38834; tel: 601-286-3325; fax: 601-287-8188.
Accommodations: Five double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, on-premise parking, phones and TV in guest rooms, laundry service, in-room computer hookups, dinner and picnic lunches available (extra charge), lawn tennis and croquet, concierge services.
Rates: $$, including full breakfast. Visa, Mastercard, Discover.
Restrictions: No children under ten, no pets, no smoking.
Millsaps Buie HouseThis Queen Anne-style mansion was the home of Reuben Webster Millsaps, a twice-wounded Confederate major, banker, financier, and founder of Millsaps College. It was designed by William Nichols, the architect of the Governor’s Mansion. It comes as a surprise to learn that when the house was built in 1888, Jackson had a population of only 5,000, not its current 400,000.
The house is furnished beautifully. In the parlor is a French “courting bench” and pier mirrors capture images of the grand piano. Guest rooms have period antiques, including canopy beds, rosewood chairs, and marble-top tables. TVs are concealed in old armoires. Business travelers often stop here, and the phones in the rooms have computer dataports.
There’s a lot of history nearby. Trenches and cannon may be seen in Battlefield Park, at Langley St. and Terry Rd. In 1863, after Sherman finished with Jackson, it was known as Chimneyville. City Hall, on S. President St., a field hospital during the battle, was one of the few buildings to escape destruction in 1863.
Address: 628 N. State St., Jackson, MS 39202; tel. and fax: 601-352-0221 and 800-784-0221.
Accommodations: Eleven double rooms, all with private baths.
Amenities: Air-conditioning, off-street parking, TV and radios.
Rates: Single, $$$. All major credit cards and personal checks.
Restrictions: No children under twelve, no pets, no smoking.
Natchez
Sxsteamboats carrying cotton to market in New Orleans made Natchez rich, and planters from nearby plantations competed to see who could build the most opulent mansion.
Natchez, like New Orleans, was occupied early in the war and suffered little damage, and today the beauty and enchantment of the Old South has been preserved. This town of twenty thousand people has more outstanding examples of opulent Victorian architecture than any other place its size in the country.
Today Natchez seems beautiful and romantic—Greek revival mansions, manicured gardens and lawns, tree-shaded streets, and, of course, Southern hospitality. One of the oldest towns in the Mississippi Valley, Natchez has seen a lot of history. French, Spanish, English, Confederate, and U.S. flags have flown over Natchez, and each culture has left its imprint.
People come from all over the world for the Natchez Pilgrimages, one in late March and early April, and another in mid-October. They feature house tours and the Confederate Pageant. For details phone 800-647-6742. If your inn doesn’t have a walking-tour map and the list of the antebellum houses that may be visited, pick them up at the Natchez Visitors Bureau at 422 Main St., or phone 800-647-6724 and they will be mailed to you.
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.
MonmouthThe 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.
DunleithThis 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 RuinsTwenty-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 PlantationOn 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
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 GroveWhen 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.
RosswoodOn 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: hylander@aol.com. 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 PlantationThis 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.
