NATCHEZ — It was exactly 70 years after the Daughters of the American Revolution bought Rosalie that the Mississippi division of the DAR gathered there Tuesday.

The DAR is an organization dedicated to preserving American history and especially military history — of which the Rosalie site has in spades.

“It’s amazing what (the DAR) has been able to do in the last 70 years from a preservation standpoint,” Rosalie Manager Karlyn Ritchie said.

Located on the site of Fort Rosalie, a Spanish outpost that Ritchie described as “the birthplace of Natchez,” Rosalie was also occupied by Union troops during the civil war.

Standing in the widow’s walk on the top of the house, Ritchie pointed to the expansive view of the river it afforded.

“It’s easy to see why the Union forces wanted this site,” she said.

Along with the two days of organizational meetings at the site, the 178 members present cut the ribbon on the mansion’s newly refurbished library.

“They came and just enjoyed seeing each other,” Chairman of the Rosalie Governing Board Cindy Phillips said. “We had a lot of folks who had never been to Rosalie before.”

Plans for the coming year include dedicating a memorial to those buried in the site’s cemetery, which was lost until 2000, when archeologists rediscovered it as part of the bluff stabilization project.

“We suspect there are more, but we know that there are 27 Christian souls buried there, and we want to honor them,” Phillips said.

There will be some preservation work done on some of the bedrooms in the mansion, but even without any major renovations planned, preservation is a day-to-day reality, Ritchie said.

“A lot of people think that when you get to a certain level, that’s it and there aren’t any more major things to do, but there is always something going on when you are trying to preserve a house this age and this historic value,” she said.