DACOR Bacon House History: Academic Library




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Sallie Sprigg Carroll, DACOR Bacon House First Grande Dame: Chapter 2, part 2: The Carroll Family during the Later Civil War Period

Aug 4 2025
In the middle of July 1863, following the great battle at Gettysburg, William T. Carroll, the patriarch of the family, died unexpectedly in Washington. Sallie and most of the family were then in Sharon Springs, New York, a popular spa town, taking a break from the Washington heat. They rushed back to Washington for a somber funeral and interment in the Carroll Mausoleum at Oak Hill Cemetery. The whole family was devastated. With the exception of her two sons, the house was filled with grown children and young grandchildren, with the war consuming them on many fronts. Gen. Griffin, Sally Carroll’s husband, had returned to duty on the battlefront in April; Sprigg Carroll was badly wounded in May 1864 and returned home to be nursed by his mother and her servants over a painful long period. It is small wonder that with the news of the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865, they lit candles in the windows and festooned the house with garlands to celebrate the end of the war with the rest of Washington.


Sallie Sprigg Carroll, DACOR Bacon House’s First Grande Dame: Chapter 2, part 1: The Carroll Family during the Early Years of Civil War Years

Jul 28 2025
From an old Democratic family, the Carroll family remained staunchly pro-Unionist during the Civil War and contributed in their individual ways to support the union. Their eldest son, Samuel Sprigg Carroll, was serving as a quartermaster at West Point in 1861 and soon transferred into active duty with the 8th Ohio Volunteers. The middle son, Charles, also volunteered for military duty with the 5th Artillery, where their daughter Sally’s beau was already serving. Daughter Sally Carroll’s marriage in December 1861 to Capt. Griffin was attended by President and Mrs. Lincoln and many top military brass. It launched her career as a military wife. Mrs. Carroll took in Col. Oliver Howard, a friend of her son’s, to nurse through a bad case of an illness similar to cholera. In mid-July 1863, shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg ended – where both Carroll sons were engaged – William T. Carroll unexpectedly died, casting a pall on the family life and fortunes.


Sallie Sprigg Carroll, DACOR Bacon House’s First Grande Dame: Part 1, Section 2: Life in the Carroll House in the pre-Civil War Period

Jul 14 2025
William Thomas Carroll’s position as Clerk of the Supreme Court, located in the Capitol building itself, provided both the means and a network of powerful friends in Washington during the period before the Civil War. He and his wife Sallie Sprigg Carroll, who was his cousin and who also grew up in a wealthy slave-owning family in Maryland, enjoyed entertaining in their new home on F Street, and relied on a large staff of enslaved domestic workers to make their lives a success. They happily intermingled with congressmen, senators, Supreme Court justices, and ministers from foreign lands, and gave a special renown to the house on the corner of F and 18th Street for hospitality and welcome. The second section of part 1 of the biography of Sallie Carroll explores life in the Carroll household in the pre-Civil War period.

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Our Authors


Terence Walz is the resident historian at DACOR Bacon House. He is a historian of modern Egyptian history with a doctorate from Boston University. He is the author and editor of two published books and has recently contributed articles to the Journal of Supreme Court History and the website of the White House Historical Association. Dr. Walz’s work in international organizations led him to the DACOR Bacon House where he has been a member for six years. He has taken on the task of researching and documenting the history of the DACOR home, its history, and its inhabitants, particularly the first one hundred years. This archive is a growing collection of his work.



Elizabeth Warner, a lawyer by training and DACOR member, is researching the life of Virginia Murray Bacon, the last private owner of the DACOR Bacon House from 1925 to 1980. She is an adjunct professor at New England College, where she designs and teaches courses in law and political science. A long-term resident of the Washington, D.C. area, she also lived and worked throughout Europe, the Middle East and Asia for 14 years, often in extremely challenging environments. In addition to articles about Mrs. Bacon, she has published material on human rights, international law and other subjects. Ms. Warner has law degrees from the University of Michigan and Georgetown University.