This house was selected by Grant as his headquarters, and he resided there for a considerable period. ("It seemed a mighty long time,” says Mrs. Billups.) With the general was Mrs. Grant and their son Jesse, as well as Mrs. Grant’s negro maid, Julia, who, Mrs. Grant told Mrs. Billups, had been given to her, as a slave, by her father, Colonel Dent.  Mrs. Billups was under the impression that Julia was, at that time, still a slave.  At all events, she was treated as a slave.

“We all liked the Grants,” Mrs. Billups said.  “He had very little to say, but she was very sociable and used to come in and sit with us a great deal.

“One day the general took his family and part of his army and went to Oxford, Mississippi, leaving Colonel Murphy in command at Holly Springs.  While Grant was away our Confederate General Van Dorn made a raid on Holly Springs, capturing the town, tearing up the railroad, and destroying the supplies of the Northern army.  He just dashed in, did his work, and dashed out again.

“Some of his men came to the house and, knowing that it was Grant’s headquarters, wished to make a search.  My mother was entirely willing they should do so, but she knew that there were no papers in the house, and assured the soldiers that if they did search they would find nothing but Mrs. Grant’s personal apparel—­which she was sure they would not wish to disturb.

“That satisfied them and they went away.

“Next morning back came Grant with his army.  He rode up on horseback, preceded by his bodyguard, and I remember that he looked worn and worried.

“As he dismounted he saw my sister-in-law, Mrs. Eaton Pugh Govan—­the one who was Miss Hawkes—­standing on the gallery above.

“He called up to her and said:  ‘Mrs. Govan, I suppose my sword is gone?’

“‘What sword, General?’ she asked him.

“’The sword that was presented to me by the army.  I left it in my wife’s closet.’

“Mrs. Govan was thunderstruck.

“‘I didn’t know it was there,’ she said.  ’Oh!  I should have been tempted to send it to General Van Dorn if I had known that it was there!’

“The next morning, as a reward to us for not having known that his sword was there, the general gave us a protection paper explicitly forbidding soldiers to enter the house.”

Of course the Govans, like all other citizens of invaded districts in the South, buried their family plate before the “Yankees” came.

Shortly after this had been accomplished—­as they thought, secretly—­the Govans were preparing to entertain friends at dinner when a negro boy who helped about the dining-room remarked innocently, in the presence of Mrs. Govan and several of her servants: 

“Missus ain’t gwine to have no fine table to-night, caze all de silvuh’s done buried in de strawbe’y patch.”

He had seen the old gardener “planting” the plate.

Thereafter it was quietly decided in the family that the negroes had better know nothing about the location of buried treasure.  That night, therefore, some gentlemen went out to the strawberry patch, disinterred the silver, carried it to Colonel Walter’s place, and there buried it under the front walk.