Grant's own recorded words state In a March 12, 1859 letter to his father that Julia was unable to do without her slaves. He wrote, "Julia and the children are well. They will not make a visit to Kentucky now. .. with four children she could not go without a servant and she was afraid that landing so often as she would have to do in free states, she might have some trouble" (sure wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone just to set a soul free..poor thing)
let's remember, Grant says "I never was an abolitionist, not even what could be called anti-slavery."
Julia's own records state the slaves were not freed until December of 85, this according to her own memoirs. Everything contradictory is second hand. I will take them at their word. Re-writing history is bad enough as it is.
Julia Grant's memoirs were written over 20 years after the war while sources of the period indicate otherwise. Grant's letters indicate that all slaves were freed before then. There are no indications that she was accompanied by any of the slaves on any of her trips to Grant's headquarters after 1863. In her home state of Missouri the state constitution was amended to end slavery in January 1865. Following the war she lived in D.C. with Grant where slave ownership was illegal. How could she have owned them as late as December 1865? None of the evidence other than her memoirs supports that. much earlier than that.