Balfour House

Lincoln called Vicksburg "the key to the war," and on Christmas Eve 1862, that key nearly turned. William Balfour built this red-brick house in 1835, but it entered history three decades later when Emma Balfour — celebrated diarist of the Siege of Vicksburg — refused to abandon it. On the night of December 24, 1862, Confederate officers and their ladies filled the rooms for a grand Christmas Ball. Among them: Brig. Gen. Martin Luther Smith and Lt. Gen. Stephen D. Lee. Thirty-six miles north at Lake Providence, Major L.L. Daniel sent an urgent telegraph to the office across the Mississippi River in Louisiana. Philip H. Fall, a Western Union operator who had joined the Vicksburg Light Artillery, received it. The river was dangerously turbulent that night, the weather cold and stormy. The only transport across was a small skiff. Shortly after midnight, Fall — exhausted, covered in mud — burst through the door and waded into the crowd of dancers. He found General Smith and delivered the message. Smith announced loudly: "This ball is at an end! The enemy is coming down river. All non-combatants must leave the city!" On December 26 came the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, the initial battle of the Vicksburg Campaign. During the siege that followed, most houses were abandoned for caves dug into hillsides for protection against mortar attacks. Emma Balfour stayed. She sheltered wounded Confederate soldiers and wrote: "What is to become of all the living things in this place when the boats commence shelling — God only knows — shut up as in a trap — no ingress or egress — and thousands of women and children..." After the Confederate surrender, the house served as headquarters of Union Maj. Gen. James B. McPherson. The elliptical spiral staircase with no center support remains among the finest in the South. Now a bed and breakfast offering tours. Check balfourhouse.com for hours.