Rosalie is located southwest of Natchez's downtown area, overlooking the Mississippi River at the junction of Orleans and South Broadway Streets. It is a cubical three-story brick building with a truncated hip roof encircled by a low balustrade. Its front facade has a monumental four-column Tuscan portico with entablature and a gabled pediment with a semi-oval window at its center. Broad entrances in the center bay provide access to the house on the ground floor and a balcony on the second; both have double-leaf doors, sidelight windows, and semi-oval transom windows. A five-column portico extends across the center of the rear elevation, although it is covered by a flat roof without entablature.[3]
History
Rosalie, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, 1938
Rosalie Mansion was built for Peter Little, a wealthy cotton broker, in 1823[2] on the bluff overlooking the Mississippi River. It is on a portion of the site of the 1729 Natchez revolt at Fort Rosalie.
On July 13, 1863, a week after the Siege of Vicksburg, U.S. Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant took possession of the mansion to use as a headquarters. On August 26, 1863, General Walter Q. Gresham took command of U.S. troops at Natchez. His headquarters remained at Rosalie. Gresham had much of the owner's furnishings stored in the attic and put under guard to prevent theft or destruction. U.S. army tents covered much of the property surrounding the mansion. U.S. soldiers were positioned in the widow's walk atop the mansion.
^ abcde"Rosalie". National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. Archived from the original on June 19, 2013. Retrieved October 23, 2007.
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