A.K. Shaifer House

The A.K. Shaifer House is a historic early 19th-century residence located near Port Gibson, Mississippi, that played a pivotal role in the American Civil War. Built in the late 1820s by Abram Keller Shaifer Sr. and his wife, the two-story cypress home was the site where Confederate pickets first exchanged fire with advancing Union forces, marking the opening of the Battle of Port Gibson during General Ulysses S. Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign. During and after the battle, the house served as the headquarters of Union General John A. McClernand and as a hospital for wounded soldiers. Preserved as a historic site and under the care of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the A.K. Shaifer House stands as one of the few original structures remaining from the Port Gibson battlefield.