Port Gibson

Seat of Claiborne County, southwestern Mississippi, USA, near the Bayou Pierre, 8 km/5 mi east of the Mississippi River and 58 km/36 mi northeast of Natchez; population (1990) 1,800. It is a busy trading and processing centre for local agricultural produce, including cotton and lumber. Although the scene of fighting during the Civil War, numerous examples of early Colonial architecture survive, and many houses are opened to the public during an annual festival.

Port Gibson was settled in the mid 18th century, and became a cotton plantation centre. On 1 May 1863 it was the site of a Union victory, following Bruinsburg and preceding Grand Gulf, during the advance on Vicksburg; it was reputedly spared from destruction when Union general Ulysses S Grant declared it ‘too beautiful to burn’. To the west are the ruins of Windsor, Mississippi's largest mansion before the Civil War, destroyed by a fire in 1890.