As a student at Alcorn State University, we always ride and chill at Windsor Ruins, but never tried to learn the history on the actual site. Being assigned this research paper gave me an advantage to learn about the Ruins and also the history behind it. There’s way more to Windsor Ruins than we know as far as who build it, what materials was used to build the mansion, and why or how was it burned down. Windsor once was a luxury plantation mansion and which was built by Smith Coffee Daniell, II. Smith was a pretty rich planter who had properties in Mississippi Delta, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Smith was born in 1826. In 1849 he married his cousin, Catherine Freeland. In 1859 the couple starts building their Greek inspired mansion on their plantation that the Mississippi River could be seen from. The mansion was built by a New England craftsmen and a slave labor. Throughout the mansion, it was showered with Italianate and Gothic architecture. The exterior of the mansion had 29 fluted columns with attached iron balustrades. Smith wasn’t able to experience his expensive, because 2 weeks after finishing he died at the age of 34. Shortly afterwards the Civil War erupts.…show more content… The family didn’t have any visiting Civil War soldiers on their lawn, but that quickly changed during General Ulysses S. Grant’s Campaign of Vicksburg. When the Battle of Port Gibson was fought on May 1st many of the hurt soldiers was brought back to Windsor, where a temporary hospital was found in the basement. While the other soldiers were seeking medical attention, a Union Soldier was shot and killed in the front doorway of the home. After hearing about the Union Soldier shooting, General Grant sent troops to burn down the mansion. Catherine begged for them not to, reminding them that she took care of them during the war. The mansion was spared, but of course they burn the barn to make a statement that there’s consequences for killing a Federal
