Built in the late 1830s, Wexford Lodge is the only surviving wartime structure in the park. Better known as the Shirley House, the building was the home of James and Adeline Shirley. Although they were both northern born, their three children, Frederick, Alice, and Quincy, were all born in Vicksburg. The Shirleys owned twenty-five slaves and made Wexford Lodge the center of a successful farm. Upon the secession of Mississippi, the Shirleys, who remained ardent supporters of the Union, kept to themselves for safety. During the siege of Vicksburg, the family fled first to a cave located in the ravine to your right, and then to an empty slave cabin several miles away. The house—badly damaged by shot and shell—was later converted by the Union army to a smallpox hospital. In 1864 it was abandoned altogether. This house and 60 acres were sold to the Federal Government in 1900 by Alice Shirley Eaton. James and Adeline are interred behind the house.
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