Natchez Preserves Pre-War Mississippi Beauty : Spared by Grant, the city has flowered with its gardens and historic antebellum mansions.

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant--during what locals often still call “The Great War”--didn’t think much of the strategic value of this little river town. So he spared Natchez the devastation he wrought on upriver Vicksburg and preserved its reputation as the oldest and most beautiful settlement on the Mississippi.

Natchez had set great store by its regal homes and luxurious lifestyle since half a century before the American Revolution, when cotton was king and paid for everything. But more than half of the town’s able-bodied men were killed in the Civil War, and the end of slavery and Depression-era collapse in the price of cotton left Natchez in economic shambles.

“Too poor to paint and too proud to whitewash,” Natchez preserved by default more than 300 of its lovely antebellum mansions and other historic buildings. With no funds to modernize, the town avoided the pressures of rampant redevelopment that swept the South, often with the horrifying results of gaudy Victorianism. In Natchez, the old homes rest comfortably beneath their halos of magnolias, catalpas and moss-draped oaks, set off by rolling waves of blazing azaleas, camellias, crape myrtle, dogwood and flowering jasmine that lays its heady scent across the summer night.

Natchez, for all its gentility, also had a reputation for being a wild and woolly riverboat town. In 1827, Jim Bowie and five cohorts took on a like number of adversaries in a duel on a nearby river sandbar. Nobody was hurt in the gunfire, but in its knife-wielding aftermath, several met their maker, one with Bowie’s 10-inch knife in his belly.

The famous Natchez Trace, running up to Nashville, began as a hunters’ footpath used by Natchez, Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, and later by French and Spanish settlers. By 1733, American settlers in the Ohio River Valley would float their produce down the river to Natchez or New Orleans, sell the flatboats for the lumber and return home via the Trace. It became the most important wilderness road in our young country’s then-Southwest frontier.

The arrival of the first steamboat in Natchez in early 1812 put an end to the Trace’s usefulness, since most travelers preferred the safety of riverboats to the highway robbery and other perils of the Trace.

Natchez today perpetuates the dual personalities and pleasures of its past. The glorious mansions and gardens are still there for all to see and visit. Natchez Under the Hill, a riverfront strip below the bluff, keeps alive the aura of the town’s free-wheeling past with its lineup of rustic restaurants, bars and riverboat landings. There is no curfew: The music ends and doors close when revelers leave.

How long/how much? Give the town a full two days for its many sights. Lodging and dining costs are a happy respite from today’s big-city prices.

Getting settled in: The Burn, built in 1832, is the oldest Greek Revival home in Natchez. The entry hall has a free-standing spiral staircase of delicate beauty, and the three bedrooms of the main house are loaded with Belgian fabrics, Aubusson carpets, fine paintings, four-poster beds and priceless antiques. There are four similar bedrooms in the original garconniere (guest house) across the formal garden, plus a cottage for families with children, who will delight in the cooling swimming pool.

A full plantation breakfast is served at the Empire-style dining table beneath a gas-burning chandelier, and lively owner Loveta Byrne says they “whip the devil” out of grits to get them fluffy.

The Natchez Eola has been the town’s social center since 1927. Its Colonial Revival style, lovely plum-colored lobby and Natchez Collection furniture and fabrics have earned it a place in the National Trust for Historic Buildings. Bedrooms are of medium size, half of them with balconies overlooking the Mississippi. Take breakfast or a light lunch in informal Julep’s, dinner in the more elegant Cafe La Salle. Eola is dead center of town.

The Ramada Inn Hilltop surely has the best view in town, looking up the Mississippi and down on Natchez Under the Hill. The 172 bedrooms and suites are generous in size and have free in-house movies and other motel amenities. There is also a huge restaurant, pool and bar, all with the same marvelous vista of the Mississippi.

Regional food and drink: If they cook it south of Richmond, they cook it in Natchez. That means plenty of greens flavored with bacon or salt pork to give them that ineffable Southern taste: collards, mustard, turnip, dandelion and “jus’ plain ol’ greens” that locals love with black-eyed peas and rice. Delicious catfish finds a place on almost every menu, usually served with hush puppies, cole slaw and French fries. Dill pickles deep-fried in batter, a Southern kitchen anomaly, are absolutely delicious yet probably destined never to be franchised.

Fresh and saltwater fish and shellfish are often prepared in peppery Cajun fashion. The bayous and ditches of Mississippi have plenty of crayfish, almost a deity in the Cajun lexicon of heavenly food. You’ll get your fill and endless refills of iced tea anywhere in the summertime South. And the dessert of choice in Mississippi is either bread pudding or pecan pie, the latter sometimes losing its unique and glorious taste to a base of chocolate goop.

Good local dining: The Wharf Master’s House (Natchez Under the Hill) has been in owner Sallie Ballard’s family since 1870, when the Ballards were a major factor in the town’s cotton industry. Alas, a broken levee took away their warehouse, and the Depression took away the cotton business. But Sallie is now one of the city’s most respected restaurateurs. Try her shrimp etouffee ($9.95), half-dozen fried oysters ($7.95) or scrumptious baby back-ribs with baked beans ($12.95). And be sure to ask for a table on the front porch, where the sunsets behind the Mississippi Bridge are spellbinding.

A few doors away one finds the Magnolia Grill, a smallish place with the emphasis on pond-raised catfish, baked or grilled Cajun style ($9.95), and barbecued shrimp seasoned New Orleans fashion ($11.95). All of Magnolia’s main dishes are served with green salad, stuffed potato and hot bread.

Like all restaurants and cafes Under the Hill, the Magnolia Grill is very rustic and informal. Don’t dress up for the decor of assorted beer signs, an American flag nailed to the wall and another sign saying: “Welcome Steamboatin’ Floozies.”

Scrooge’s (315 Main St.) is a publike place in a historic building that has been here since about 1864. During Prohibition there was a speak-easy deceptively named the Tango Tea Room upstairs. Owner John Junkin, a practicing lawyer and former state legislator, is usually around in the evening, making sure customers get their pan-broiled redfish, Gulf shrimp deep-fried or sauteed in wine, or beef kebabs, promptly and to their liking. All of these are about $9, with rice pilaf or baked potato and salad. There’s an enormous bar with brass rail, booths and a spiral-iron stairway up to the old Tea Room.

The Carriage House (401 High St.) is on the grounds of stately Stanton Hall mansion and a great place for lunch. Try the Southernfried chicken with rice and gravy, vegetable, biscuits and salad or dessert ($6.50). Fried oysters with the same fixings are the same price, and numerous substantial salads go for $5.25.

Going first-class: Monmouth Plantation was built in 1818 and is the very essence of the antebellum South. Set on 26 landscaped acres of lush gardens and tranquil ponds with footbridges, Monmouth is a veritable museum of period antiques, palatial bedrooms and the opulent life.

Now owned by a Los Angeles couple, the Monmouth greets guests with a chilled mint julep, and the royal treatment goes on from there. Breakfasts are lavish affairs served in Empire surroundings, and evening meals may be arranged. Given the current cost of such luxury elsewhere, Monmouth’s room rates are a carpetbagger’s dream.

On your own: Antebellum homes and their gardens are the main reason for a visit here, with 28 open year-round, many more during the monthlong Natchez Pilgrimages (semiannual home tours) in March-April and October. Try not to miss a tour of Longwood, an 1860 octagonal Oriental villa built for a Philadelphia cotton baron. In 1861, work was halted by the war as northern artisans returned home to answer the call, but it’s still a more-than-spectacular edifice.

Stanton Hall, built in 1857 and one of the most visited landmarks in America, is the finest of them all and can’t be missed. Nor should Rosalie, a Georgian mansion built in the 1820s and the 1863 headquarters of Gen. Grant.

The Natchez Pecan Shelling Company (500 N. Broadway) is a must for pecan lovers, with its awe-inspiring selection of natural and roasted nuts, pralines, fudge and assorted other goodies to be carried out or shipped home, all at neighborly prices.

The Natchez Trace is now a federal parkway running up through Jackson. The outlaws of centuries past have long since gone to their just rewards, and the Trace is a lovely ride through the lush countryside and bayous of southern Mississippi.

GUIDEBOOK

Natchez, Naturally

Getting there: Fly Delta, American, Continental or Northwest into Jackson, Miss. An advance-purchase, round-trip ticket will cost between $390 and $440. It’s a scenic 92-mile drive direct to Natchez via the Trace, or one may dog-leg through Vicksburg and the pretty little town of Port Gibson. The riverboats Delta Queen and Mississippi Queen, which leave regularly from New Orleans and upriver points, always dock at Natchez.

Where to stay: The Burn (712 N. Union St.; $75-$125 double with full Southern breakfasts); Natchez Eola (110 N. Pearl St.; $60-$75 double); Ramada Inn Hilltop (130 John R. Junkin Drive; $62-$66 double); Monmouth (36 Melrose Ave.; $95-$140 double with full breakfasts).

For more information: Call the Natchez Visitors Bureau at (800) 647-6724, or write (Box 1485, Natchez, Miss. 39121) for a 36-page booklet on “Historic Natchez.” This guide lists major attractions, historic homes open year-round, accommodations and dining, with location maps. There is also an upcoming events brochure. For information on Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, call (800) 647-6742.