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A FOOTNOTE TO HISTORY

© Dorothy Hill

I love an old house with a past. Now, all houses have stories, but some have better ones. And sometimes that story is the stuff that legends are made of.

Since Mississippi is full of old houses, it has more than its share of tales. Take the Walter Place in Holly Springs, for example. Not many antebellum homes resemble a European castle, but this one does. It caused quite a stir a few years ago when the house went up for sale and it was bought by the general manager of the Minnesota Vikings football team, Mike Lynn. But it turned out to be okay since his wife Jorja was a local girl. They restored the house and the grounds that had been neglected for years. It has become a local attraction and a favorite on the annual pilgrimage tour.

It may have been the home’s imposing style that convinced a certain Yankee general (Ulysses S. Grant, to be exact) late in 1862 to seize it for his personal use. He had big plans to capture the city of Vicksburg further south on the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy. But, because of Vicksburg’s location on the bluffs above the river, Grant was having trouble. He decided to try to move his army through the state and take the city through the back door.

The fact that a Southern family had already taken up refuge at the Walter Place in an effort to escape from the oncoming Yankees was of little importance. The Walter family had by this time headed further south to get away when the Govan ladies needed a place to stay after losing their home to the northern invaders. It was Julia Govan who was forced to welcome General Grant and his wife Julia to Walter Place.

According to legend, the family, lacking faith in the morals of the invading army, decided to hide the family silver. Most people would look for a good hiding place out back. Not them. They hid the family treasures in front. When the General and his family took up residence in the house, guards were stationed to protect him—right where the silver was buried. The ladies of the house were reported to stand on the balcony and giggle at the guards below who didn’t know that they were protecting more than a Yankee general.

A few weeks later, the General and his army had moved south taking over more territory. Because of the location of Holly Springs, it was used as a supply depot for his advancing army. A Confederate general, Earl Van Dorn, decided to put a kink in Grant’s plans and attacked Holly Springs. In a few hours, the Confederates had destroyed most of Grant’s munitions and supplies.

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