If Walls Could Talk
Warren County Court House
The Reverend Newit Vick, Vicksburg's founder, originally planned to build his home on this site; however, after he and his wife both fell victim to yellow fever in August of 1819, this site was set aside to forever be a "Public Square". Built atop one of the highest bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River, the Court House was completed in October of 1860, just two months before Mississippi seceded from the Union.
Smart Thinking
Admiral Porter's Union gunboats "threw a few shots about the courthouse". This prompted the Confederate Army to begin holding Union prisoners in the courtroom to prevent Union shelling of the building. During the 1862 bombardment of Vicksburg by the Union Navy, Confederate Generals Breckenridge, Lee, and Van Dorn watched the action from the cupola atop the courthouse.
Saved from Destruction
After the new court house was completed, the activism of Eva W. Davis saved the old court house building from being torn down. In 1948 it became a museum and was the first building in Mississippi to be named a National Historic Landmark.