Monmouth Historic Inn

John Quitman bought Monmouth in 1826, eight years after it was built, and spent the next three decades turning it into the house that defines antebellum Natchez. He was a general who led the charge at Chapultepec and governed Mexico City after the siege. Back home, he served as Mississippi governor. The 1853 renovation added the four-column portico and Greek Revival stucco scored to look like stone — the mansion you see now. Quitman died at Monmouth in 1858. A year later, his wife Eliza followed. The Civil War arrived in 1862. Union soldiers occupied the house in 1863 and stripped it. Quitman's daughters sold most of what remained in 1865. For the next century, Monmouth decayed. In 1978, Ronald and Lani Riches bought the ruin and spent three years bringing the main house and brick kitchen back. They tracked down Quitman's desk, two four-poster beds, and the family Bible. The memorabilia now includes the gold sword Congress gave him for the Mexican-American War and the red handkerchief he used to rally troops at Chapultepec. Monmouth is a National Historic Landmark and operates as a 30-room luxury inn. The mansion, gardens, and reconstructed slave quarters are open to guests. The restaurant takes reservations from non-guests for dinner. Tours run daily at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. You're standing in the house where a man who led armies came home to die, and where his daughters pledged loyalty to the country he once fought to save what was left.