, 1842 to Judge Thomas Gibbes Morgan and his second wife, Sarah Hunt Fowler Morgan. She spent her early childhood in New Orleans until Judge Morgan relocated the family to Baton Rouge in 1850. Although Sarah received less than a full year of formal schooling, she followed a serious course of study on her own. In addition to learning French, she read widely in English literature. References to her reading habits as well as allusions to various literary works appear in her diary, which she began during the Civil War.
The war years were extremely difficult for the Morgans, who suffered the loss of four family members between 1861 and 1863. Henry Morgan, Sarah's favorite brother, was killed in a duel in the spring of 1861, and her father, Thomas, died several months later. Three other brothers joined the Confederacy: of these, Gibbes and George were killed in 1863, while the youngest, James, climbed the ranks in the Confederate Navy.