This Gothic villa, probably designed by the firm of architect Samuel Sloan, was built in 1858 for a reported $40,000 by planter William Henry Coxe on a fifteen-acre tract purchased in 1857. Its massive cast iron gates and fence, manufactured in Boston, are identical to those at the United States Military Academy. At Coxe's invitation, Major General Ulysses S. Grant used the mansion as his residence and headquarters after returning to Holly Springs on December 23, 1862, following the Van Dorn Raid, and the Grant family and members of his staff had Christmas dinner here in 1862. Grant remained here until January 9, 1863, when he moved his headquarters to Memphis. Three days earlier, at dawn on December 20, Major General Earl Van Dorn's Confederate cavalry column had entered Holly Springs from the east to destroy Grant's forward supply depot. Six Federal companies of the 2nd Illinois Cavalry were encamped almost 1/2 mile north on West Street in the open area of the old Marshall County Fairgrounds. Van Dorn divided his force into three attacking parties, and the 1st Mississippi Cavalry of McCulloch's Brigade raced toward this point and turned right toward the fairgrounds. Because garden fences had been consumed in Union campfires, the Confederate troopers were able to charge across lawns and angle around corners. At the fairgrounds, Federal Lieutenant Colonel Quincy McNeil rallied his troopers and formed a battle line with sabers drawn. Colonel Robert Pinson's Mississippians fired into the Federal line with their revolvers and encircled the Illinois cavalry. McNeil was captured with 100 of his men, while Major John Mudd and 70 Federal troopers cut their way out and escaped to Memphis, and Mudd listed eight men killed and 39 wounded.