Also during the war, for a two-week period, a segment of the Union Army encamped near Holly Springs and set up headquarters in the Leslie-Alford-Mims House. It is reported that Mrs. Leslie hated the Yankees bitterly but loved her home more, so she treated them with cool civility. This may have protected the house from destruction, the fate of many other grand southern houses. Mrs. Leslie is said to have “charmed the soldiers so that they didn't burn the house down, but they did get the chickens.”