First, the site of the battle is listed on old maps as Wright Farm, not the Barrett Farm. That is because the Wrights and Barretts were intermarried at the time. However, at the time of the battle itself, only women were in the house. The lady of the house was Oliver Barrett's widow - Sarah Cornelia Barrett (nee Walton). Her two daughters were also there, one of which was my great-grandmother, another Sarah Cornelia.
The morning of the battle, there was heavy rain. Back then, nobody fought battles in rain because the cannons wouldn't fire, horses slipped in mud, visibility was poor, etc. Even though the armies were close to each other and knew each other's relative positions, nobody expected a fight until the next day. Inside the house, the women prepared a meal iin the dining room for the Confederate officers to eat.
However, around 2:00 pm the weather cleared and the sun came out. That meant the battle could be fought in the afternoon. The fighting started. After a bit, a Confederate soldier came to the house and told the women that they were retreating toward Jackson and that the Yankees were coming in their direction.
Shortly thereafter, a group of high ranking Union officers approached the house. They walked right in and, once they saw the food laid out in the dining room table, they sat down uninvited and prepared to eat. This infuriated my great-great grandmother since this was her house, she had not invited them in, and she had not prepared food for enemy officers to eat. There was little she could do since she was alone in the house except for her daughters and other female relatives. However, she refused to be cowed.
She strode into the dining room and glared at the Union officers. Although she did not know it at the time, she was confronting three famous Union generals in one room at the same time - Grant, Sherman, and MacPherson - together with some lesser officers. According to family lore, she was known to be steely-eyed, cold, and scary when really angry, and she was definitely angry with Yankees in her house and planning to eat her food.
She stared at the Union officers in silence until she got their attention and then said [famous quote in our family] - "Go ahead and eat all you want.......but don't say I didn't warn you." She then gave them a hard, malicious smile.
They looked at her, looked at the food, thought about it, looked at each other - and then left .... without touching a bite - and without burning down the house. In fact, they left in a hurry.
The Yankees moved on to Jackson and more victories in Mississippi, but my great-great grandmother enjoyed a reputation locally as the woman who single-handedly terrified three Union generals.
For more information about the house in relation to the First Battle of Jackson:
http://www.civilwarlegacy.com/legacy/mercantile/images/Jackson_btl.jpg
http://www.nps.gov/vick/historyculture/jackson.htm