Grounding does nothing to protect equipment from damaging power surges of the type that would occur in Carrington Event.
Only electronic devices designed to clamp over voltage and interrupt power to a device could help with that.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this but the world of 1859 is not the same world we live in now. We'll soon see if the Carrington Event back then equates to the end of civilization you seem to think will happen tonight.