14 April 1861: “Lewis went down yesterday afternoon and returned today by an express train, he brings us news that Fort Sumpter is given up, after a gallant defence”

Item description: Entry, 14 April 1861, from Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball’s diary which discusses the surrender of Fort Sumter and comments extensively on family news.

Item citation: From the the Margaret Ann Meta Morris Grimball Diary #975-z, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Item transcription: http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/grimball/grimball.html

More about this item:

Margaret Ann “Meta” Morris Grimball was born in 1810. She was a descendent of Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1830, she married John Berkley Grimball (1800-1892), who owned a rice plantation near Adam’s Run, South Carolina. They had nine children, whom they brought up at the plantation and in Charleston. During the Civil War, the family sought safety in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The plantation was confiscated by federal troops but returned to the family in 1866. The Grimballs were unable to continue mortgage payments and lost the house in 1870. Meta died in 1881.

Meta kept a diary before, during, and immediately after the Civil War. In it she records the major events of the day and their effect on her family’s life. Grimball juxtaposes common domestic concerns with larger issues related to the Civil War, including slavery, personal safety, and religion. The journal closes with an entry describing some of the family’s hopeful plans for survival.

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One Response to 14 April 1861: “Lewis went down yesterday afternoon and returned today by an express train, he brings us news that Fort Sumpter is given up, after a gallant defence”

  1. Ellen Cheek says:

    Thank you for sharing this part of our history in this manner.