The Finest Antebellum Mansion In the South

The Finest Antebellum Mansion in the South By Elton Camp Windsor was near the banks of the Mississippi River Extreme luxury, size, beauty and comfort it did deliver The manor was completed just before the Civil War It’s builder, Smith Daniell, couldn’t asked for more Only a few weeks after his palatial home was complete Its wealthy owner became ill and his own death did meet His heirs were left a four-story house & a huge plantation It depended on slave labor that was ruining the nation Windsor had twenty-five rooms, each with a fireplace And running water and inside baths the house did grace A rare feature indeed: that two dumbwaiters were found From floor-to-floor more easily to move the food around A ballroom on the fourth floor had an observatory atop The rigors of a civil war threatened to bring it to a stop It came to be used by rebs and yanks, so it did survive And the family who owned it managed to stay alive The mansion become a social center for the entire state Invited guests arrived early, partied and the stayed late But, in 1890 to Windsor the greatest disaster then befell A guest left a lighted cigar on the balcony and it then fell After the fire, only the thirty-foot-high columns did stand And an architectural treasure disappeared from the land The magnificent ruins remind of the South’s glorious past And that no civilization built on human suffering can last If a glimpse into the way planters lived you wish to see, Go only a few miles from Port Gibson and there it will be The ruins will remind us of some ancient Grecian temple But built at the expense of slaves kept uneducated & simple For pictures of the mansion go to http://www.scribd.com/doc/57710764/The-Finest- Antebellum-Mansion-in-the-South The picture of the ruins was taken years ago by the noted writer Eudora Welty of Jackson, Mississippi. Some of the English faculty at my college actually knew Eudora and had studied under her at various workshops.