Sarah Jane Graham (Sams) Sams (1835 – 1920)

Reproduction of a circa 1858 ambrotype of Sarah Jane Graham (Sams) Sams (1835 – 1920), courtesy of Teresa Bridges.

Sarah Jane Graham Sams

married Dr.Robert Randolph Sams (1827 – 1910), her first cousin once removed (1C1R), in 1853. Since it’s Valentine’s Day here in the U.S., I chose to introduce you to this family. This couple, the son of Dr. BB Sams and the granddaughter of Lewis Reeve Sams are unique in several ways. First, we know what they looked like. We have photographs of them taken at the dawn of the invention of photography. Second, we have correspondence from Sarah to her husband Randolph during the Civil War. Third, they both survived the war. Lastly, they are one of the very few Sams families to return to Beaufort after the war and stay here. Therefore, there is plenty of evidence they loved each other and Beaufort, SC.

Sarah and Randolph had five children after he graduated from college, and they married. Two died young. Two of the three who survived into adulthood were born before the Civil War and one after. I’ll tell you more about Randolph in a later article, but I will concentrate on Sarah’s letters for today.

“My Own Darling R.”
Sarah writing to Randolph, February, 1865

1865

Sarah must have written often to her husband while he was away in the Army of the Confederate States of America. But we only have copies of a handful of letters. They were written in February and March 1865.

This is a remarkable first-person account from a witness to history. When Sarah wrote this, she was living in Barnwell Court House, SC. She, her two young daughters, and others had evacuated from Beaufort four years earlier. Sarah had no idea when the Civil War would end or if she’d see her husband again. But, unfortunately, Sarah knew of General Sherman’s ‘march to the sea’ and that his forces were about to go through Barnwell on their way to Columbia. It must have been terrifying.