Balfour House

Emma Balfour was born Emma Harrison in Virginia in 1818 and married Dr. William Balfour of Vicksburg in 1847. Her diary, printed in 1983 as an edition covering May 16 to June 2, 1863, is one of the best accounts of civilians under fire. She lived beside Pemberton's headquarters and wrote that the city was shut up as in a trap, with thousands of women and children inside and no way out. She survived the bombardment and the occupation. Dr. Balfour died in 1877 and Emma followed nine years later; both are buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Court House Museum — 0.2 mi
  Vicksburg's Greek Revival courthouse of 1860, raised on a hilltop with the labor of enslaved artisans and now a private local-history museum heavy on Confederate relics.
• Vicksburg National Military Park — 1.6 mi
  A 16-mile tour road through the trenches of the 47-day siege of 1863, with a national cemetery and the story of the thousands of enslaved people who reached freedom behind Union lines.
• USS Cairo Gunboat and Museum — 2.0 mi
  The raised hull of a Union river ironclad sunk by a mine in the Yazoo in 1862, displayed at Vicksburg National Military Park with the artifacts the river mud preserved.

More markers nearby

• Pemberton Headquarters (Willis-Cowan House) — steps away
• Dabney and Dabney — steps away
• Red Tops — steps away
• Old Natchez District — 0.2 mi