Windsor Ruins is located 12 miles southwest of Port Gibson, Mississippi in Claiborne County, Mississippi near Alcorn State University. The site is maintained and administered by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
The Windsor Plantation at one time covered 2,600 acres. The mansion itself was constructed in 1859-1861 by Smith Daniell who lived in the home only a few weeks before he died.
The home contained 25 rooms, each with a fireplace. It featured interior baths supplied with water from an attic tank, a library, a basement with a school room, an on-site dairy, numerous supply rooms, and a roof observatory.
During the American Civil War the home was used by both Union and Confederate troops. Confederate forces used the roof observatory as an observation platform and signal station.
After the capture of the area by Union forces, the mansion was used as a Union hospital and observation station. A Union soldier is said to have been killed in the doorway when the home was taken.
The home survived the Civil War and continued to be used for social gatherings in the area. Mark Twain stayed at the home and is said to have used the roof observatory to observe the Mississippi River.
On 17 February 1890, a party guest left a lighted cigar on a balcony, and the house was destroyed in the resulting conflagration. The only remnants were the 23 haunting columns, a few pieces of china, and the wrought-iron stairs that are now used at Alcorn State University down the road.
Windsor Ruins has appeared in several motion pictures including Raintree Country (1957) starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift and most recently in the movie Ghosts of Mississippi with Whoopi Goldberg and Alec Baldwin and James Woods.
Also in the nearby area are the Port Gibson Battlefield Park, the ghost town that was Rodney, Mississippi, the Shaifer House, and the Bethel Presbyterian Church, founded in 1826.
Windsor Ruins is on the National Register of Historic Places.