Windsor Ruins

Hyde and I actually spent a weekend in Natchez! We had a wonderful weekend relaxing and visiting local ruins, Indian mounds, and historic churches. The weekend started by having dinner with Katherine and Lindsey Callon at The Castle on Friday night. Saturday morning, we had breakfast at Oak Hill Bed & Breakfast. Doug and Donald surprised us with eggs benedict, cheese crepe with raspberry toppings, fresh fruit and homemade blueberry muffins. After the house tour, we took an hour nap! We spent some of the afternoon cooling off in the pool at Hawthorne and just being able to enjoy some time together (of course, Miss Mags too). We also were able to tour the Windsor Ruins (pictures below), drive through Alcorn State University (Steve "Air" McNair's alma mater), ride along the Natchez Trace, and visit the Bethel Presbyterian Church and Emerald Indian Mound.

A Mississippi treasure, built in 1859-61. The original owner,Smith Daniell, only lived in the large mansion for a few weeks before he died. The Windsor plantation once covered over 2,600 acres.

It was built for only $175,000 (not a small sum at the time), which included the building cost and its furnishings. Tanks in the attic supplied water for the interior baths. The mansion contained twenty-five rooms with twenty-five fireplaces, with a basement containing a school room, dairy, and supply rooms. From the roof observatory, signal equipment was used to signal Confederate troops of Yankee advances. The height of each column is 30 feet.

A Yankee soldier was shot in the front doorway of the home. Given that the mansion was used as a Union hospital and observation post during the Civil War, this is the most likely reasons that it was spared from being burned by the Union troops at the time. The drawing above was made by a Union soldier while traveling through the Windsor area during the Civil War. It is the only known depiction of what Windsor actually looked like complete.

After the Civil War, Windsor burned, during a house party on February 17, 1890, after a guest left a lighted cigar on the upper balcony. The wrought iron staircase is now a part of nearby Alcorn State University.