Twenty-three columns standing in a Mississippi pasture — all that remains of the largest antebellum Greek Revival mansion in the state after an 1890 fire
13180 Rodney Rd, Port Gibson, MS 39150
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free and open to the public. No admission charge; the site is on Claiborne County land.
Access
Limited Access
Open-air ruins on grassy pasture terrain; unpaved paths between columns; uneven ground
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1861 · Largest Antebellum Greek Revival Mansion in Mississippi · Union Field Hospital and Observation Post — Battle of Port Gibson 1863 · February 1890 Fire Left 23 Columns Standing · National Register of Historic Places
Smith Coffee Daniell II completed Windsor between 1859 and 1861 at a cost reportedly exceeding $175,000 — a staggering sum that reflected the wealth generated by the cotton economy and the labor of enslaved people on the surrounding plantation. Windsor was the largest private Greek Revival residence in antebellum Mississippi, with four stories and 23 Corinthian columns fronting the main facade. Daniell died just weeks after moving in, never occupying the house through a full year of ownership.
During the Civil War the mansion passed through Union hands during the Vicksburg Campaign. At the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, 1863, Union troops crossed the Mississippi River at Bruinsburg and pushed Confederate forces north toward Vicksburg. Windsor served as a Union field hospital and, per the Mississippi Encyclopedia's entry on the ruins, as an observation post — officers climbed to the roof to survey the surrounding terrain. Confederate cavalry retreating from the battle passed through the property.
Windsor survived the war intact. For nearly three decades it stood as one of the most elaborate plantation houses in Mississippi, though the post-Reconstruction economy had eroded the plantation's scale. In February 1890, a house party guest dropped a lit cigarette in an upstairs room. The fire spread rapidly through the wooden structure. By morning only the 23 cast-iron-capped Corinthian columns and the iron spiral staircases remained standing in the field.
The ruins are managed by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are accessible free of charge via Rodney Road, approximately 10 miles southwest of Port Gibson.
Sources
Windsor Ruins carries two primary haunting traditions, both grounded in documented historical events. The first centers on Smith Coffee Daniell II, who died within weeks of completing the house he had spent years building. That confluence of arrival and death — moving into a house and dying before fully inhabiting it — has generated the folk belief that Daniell never truly departed.
The second tradition involves the Civil War occupation. According to accounts documented by the Seth Parker architecture blog and corroborated by the Mississippi Haunted Houses listing, a Union soldier was killed in the mansion's doorway during the 1863 occupation. Whether this reflects a specific incident in Union field-hospital records or a local tradition without documentary support is not confirmed in primary sources; investigators have noted the story but its historical basis remains unverified.
Paranormal investigators have conducted EVP sessions at the ruins, recording what they report as disembodied voices among the columns. Roadside America's write-up documents visitor accounts of voices and unseen presences experienced at dusk, when the columns cast long shadows across the surrounding pasture.
The ruins are a free, open-access site. The combination of documented violent history, dramatic landscape, and remote location makes them one of Mississippi's more atmospheric outdoor paranormal sites.
Notable Entities
Walk among 23 cast-iron-capped Corinthian columns rising from a grassy pasture — all that remains of Windsor, the largest Greek Revival mansion in antebellum Mississippi. Union troops used the mansion as a hospital and observation post during the Battle of Port Gibson in 1863.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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