Burning supplies, burning bridges.

Confederate General Earl Van Dorn and his raiders galloped into town in early morning; the evening before, conspiring townspeople had thrown a lavish party where unsuspecting Union officers danced and drank long into the night. Not surprisingly, defense of the town was weak. Over 1500 surprised and sleepy Union soldiers were immediately captured and paroled, as the raiders set to work on their destruction. Tons of cotton intended for sale to finance Grant’s army were torched, smoking the skies, while rail car after rail car packed with bacon were burned, grease crackling in stench-filled pools. Over $1 million in medical supplies alone were destroyed.

And yet amid the destruction, quarter was given. While the town square was burned, other homes were spared, and Confederate soldiers declined to invade Julia Grant’s personal space, leaving her quarters untouched. It was said that because Van Dorn hailed from Port Gibson, for this reason Grant refused to burn that town once he finally reached it. However, if Grant’s personal feelings were charitable, his experience leading a defeated army out of Mississippi without supplies led to a brutal shift in his tactics. It was only after Holly Springs, he later recalled, that he realized an army could feed off the land and its people, a realization that would cost the South dearly.

Today, in Holly Springs, a town the New York Times has called “an antebellum encyclopedia,” a driving tour gives you some of the sites and details involved in Van Dorn’s dramatic raid, but it is when you take the driving and walking tour of Holly Springs historic homes, churches and neighborhoods, you’ll understand at once why those Union officers never stood a chance—Holly Springs is still pure enchantment.

So here’s your marching orders: first stop, the Walter Place.