The Diary of Elizabeth Carter: A Shared Undertaking

Family History in a Civil War-era Diary

Sund 23 66 N.W. very fair. Sister sick. All the rest went to the gate to see the S.C. 4th Regt. pass. carried them flowers + c. were introduced to the Officers. Col. Sloane + c. + several came to the house. George, Aunt, + Nette went to Church.

June 23, 1861 entry from Oatlands

Oatlands

Oatlands Historic House and Gardens is located in Loudoun County, Virginia, about 7 miles south of Leesburg and 40 miles northwest of Washington, D.C. Our young family toured the ca. 1805 house and grounds in 2009, but it was only after I developed a passion for genealogy and family history that the property and its former residents grew in personal significance. George Tasker Carter inherited the land from his father Robert Carter III in 1798.* In 1835, George, then a 58-year old bachelor, married 38-year old childless widow Elizabeth Osborne (Grayson) Lewis. Together they had two sons. When George died in 1846 Elizabeth inherited Oatlands, besides owning a number of less grand local farms and homes. She lived to age 88 and never remarried.

Wed. 25. 64 S.W. very fair. Miss Harrison, Mrs. A.B. Carter, Mrs. G., A.F.G. & Ben rode to U – B.G. B.G. & A.F.G.

July 25, 1860 entry written from Bellefield

The Diary

Elizabeth’s surviving diary is dated July 1, 1860 to December 31, 1872, was preserved by the Carter family, and donated to Oatlands, which subsequently transcribed and published it in book form in 2021. I picked up a copy on my most recent visit. It contains concise accounts utilizing many abbreviations from nearly every day of those 12-1/2 years, perhaps 4,400 entries in all. Date, temperature, and wind direction always; Financial and agricultural matters often; People, places, skirmishes, local travel, sicknesses, neighbors, dinner guests, slave (later freedmen and women) relations, family trials, and more are sprinkled throughout. About 20% of the entries were written at Oatlands, with the remaining 80% written at Bellefield, Elizabeth’s home and farm located 20 miles west of Oatlands near the town of Upperville.

Fri. 27. 74 N.W. rain + thunder early – then clear. Dr. G. Robb & B. Grayson called to take ____. Mrs. C. Ben A.S.G. went to Mr. A.B. Carter’s – Mrs. C, Ben, A.F.G., M.S.G. & Fitz to Upperville for dinner.

July 27, 1860 entry from Bellefield. Dr. G. and Robb are John Cooke Grayson and Robert O. Grayson Jr., first cousins from Culpeper County, VA. B. Grayson, A.F.G., M.S.G., and Fitz are young adult siblings who were raised by Elizabeth Carter.

Graysons in Loudoun and Fauquier County

Our 6th great-grandparents Benjamin and Susannah (Monroe) Grayson of colonial Prince William County, Virginia had four children. Their oldest child Benjamin II settled in Loudoun County in the 1760s. His son Benjamin III and wife Nancy (Bronaugh) Grayson had six children that continued the line, including the diarist Elizabeth Carter. All had died by 1860 except Elizabeth and her sister Mary Doniphan (Grayson) Stephenson, an Upperville neighbor who appears hundreds of times in the diary. By 1850, in addition to guiding her fatherless sons, the widowed Elizabeth served as guardian to her deceased younger brother Richard‘s five orphaned children. Of these, Mary Stuart Grayson (M.S.G.) and Ann Fitzhugh Grayson (A.F.G.) grow into adulthood as companions and protegees of their Aunt. They too appear in hundreds of entries, as do their Stephenson cousins to a lesser degree. The names and initials of their siblings and some 15 or more additional first cousins are sprinkled throughout. Elizabeth Carter’s sons George Carter, Jr. and Benjamin Grayson Carter are predictably mentioned hundreds of times as well.

A Shared Undertaking

Sat. 3. 62. S.E. raining hard. Impossible to cross streams between here + U. the cart with Aunt’s trunk was washed some distance down one, but no one hurt.

November 3, 1860 entry from Bellefield

The published book is titled The Diary of Elizabeth O. Carter. A more precise title might be The Household Diary of Elizabeth O. Carter. Nearly all the daily entries from July 1860 until June 1863 were pretty clearly written by MSG and/or AFG, with an occasional entry by another unidentified household member. During this time period, Elizabeth is referred to primarily as “Aunt,” but also as “Dear Aunt,” “Mrs. C.”, “Aunt Betty,” and “Aunt B.” There are four entries during these years in which she is called “EOC.” These were probably written by Elizabeth herself, as this is how she refers to herself in the remainder of the diary, where “I,” “me,” and “my” also make a great many more appearances. The spelling is more precise in the MSG and AFG entries.

So much varied information is contained within the pages of the diary, thus so many directions to go with it. I hope to annotate the entire diary with Grayson family details, and to map out the extended family relationships.

Frid. 12. 30. S.W. Very fair. My dear B.G.C. married yesterday Eleventh in Brunswick County

February 12, 1864 entry from Bellefield

Some Civil War Diary Entries

The Civil War details are especially fascinating, all the more so in considering how farm and family life went on fairly normally throughout, including weddings and children for both of Elizabeth’s sons. Each of the male Grayson cousins served in some capacity during the armed conflict, two tragically killed in action, with the spouse of a Stephenson daughter sharing the same fate. Col. John Singleton Mosby and some of his fellow controversial partisan cavalrymen appear and disappear from Elizabeth’s house throughout the war.

Mon. 7. 40 N.W. very fair Yanks reported my dear Sister came out to stay Bens recption [sic] came off a large company to dinner & Danced at night

Frid. 11. 44. NW. very fair at night Colonel Moseby [sic] with his full band gave a serenade had a large supper + a dance

March 1864 entries from Bellefield

The Yankees appear in the neighborhood numerous times, “some civil, others not.” (April 15, 1862). “The yard filed [sic] all day with the yanks only one gentleman amonst [sic] them” (July 20, 1863). When Union soldiers appeared the young men, many of whom (George and Ben Carter included) rode with Mosby, hid in the nearby mountains. Ann F. Grayson wrote the following entry after one very harrowing afternoon:

April 16th [1862] Parties of soldiers flocking in all day for food – one set of Black Dutch about 50 in number, drew dirks on Aunt + Sister – broke open the larder, stole all they could lay hands on -+ there is no telling what violence they would have committed – but for the timely + providential arrival of five of the Provost Guard who charged upon them, + drove them off – They protected us all night, faithfully + kindly – our danger was great several times -+ we shall never forget our defenders – They are of the 4th Regt. N.Y. Vols. Co. E.

So much varied information is contained within the pages of the diary, thus so many directions to go with it.

Quotes from The Diary of Elizabeth O. Carter, Loudoun County, Virginia, 1860-1872. Lori H. Kimball, ed., © 2021 Oatlands, Inc., Leesburg, VA

*Robert Carter III freed more than 400 of his former slaves in the late 1700s, and sent his sons to Rhode Island Baptist College (now Brown University) in the hopes that their religious instruction would develop in them a distaste for the practice as well. George unsuccessfully challenged the emancipations in court, and subsequently purchased slaves to work Oatlands.