The Willis-Cowan Home was a large antebellum dwelling for a prosperous family, until the Civil War came along. Confederate general John C. Pemberton, commander of the CSA troops at Vicksburg, chose this home as his headquarters and used it until he was forced to move his headquarters out of range on Union artillery.
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This large and impressive antebellum home has been known since the Civil War as the Willis-Cowan Home or Pemberton House. During the Civil War, it was selected by Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton as one of his headquarters during the forty-seven day Siege of Vicksburg. During this time, it withstood heavy shelling. Emma Balfour, wife of Dr. William T. Balfour, lived next door and kept a detailed diary of the siege. She described the heavy shelling of May 30 as follows:
"I never saw anything like it. People were running in every direction to find a place of safety. The shells fell literally like hail. Mrs. Willis' house was struck twice and two horses in front of her door were killed. General Pemberton and staff had to quit it."
The ownership of the property on which the Pemberton House is located dates back to the Reverend Newet Vick, founder of Vicksburg, who acquired the property sometime between 1814 and 1819. After the death of Mr. Vick in 1819, his estate was divided among his heirs, and his daughter Martha acquired this property.
The house was probably built between 1834 and 1836 by William Bobb. In 1836 he sold the property to Mrs. Martha P. Willis, daughter of Burwell Vick and the mother of John Willis, who distinguished himself as a soldier in the Mexican War and was a successful planter at Panther Burn Plantation in the Mississippi Delta. At the outbreak of war in 1846, he organized the Vicksburg Southrons in Warren County and served with the First Regiment of Mississippi Volunteers, commanded by Colonel Jefferson Davis, in the battles of Vera Cruz, Monterey, and Buena Vista. After the war, he returned to live in his mother's home. Willis mortgaged the property in 1874, and the courts subsequently sold it to Alice B. Crutcher in 1888. Two years later, Mrs. M. F. Cowan, Wife of Ludwell Blackstone Cowan, purchased the home.
Cowan, who lived in the home from 1890 until his death in 1892, was a lieutenant in Captain J. J. Cowan's Weldon Battery, builders of the Vicksburg and Raymond courthouses) in a project to devise, construct and plant torpedoes in the Yazoo River. They developed an electric spark torpedo, the first ever used against a United States warship, which sank the Union gunboat Cairo on December 12, 1862, Remnants, thought to be parts of the torpedo, were obtained by Lieutenant Cowan. The remnants have been exhibited in the Old Courthouse Museum in Vicksburg and are now in the possession of Dr. Harry Pierce of Vicksburg.
The home, presently unoccupied, was bought many years ago by the Sisters of Mercy and used by them until recently as a kindergarten."
The home, presently unoccupied, was bought many years
ago by the Sisters of Mercy and used by them until recently as
a kindergarten."