The Todds: First Family of the Civil War

FAIN: FB-52233-06

Stephen William Berry
University of North Carolina, Pembroke (Pembroke, NC 28372-8699)

Mary Todd Lincoln had thirteen siblings. Like many Kentucky families, they were bitterly divided by the Civil War. Like no other family, their division became the object of consistent national attention and occasional scandal. THE TODDS will be the first study of this neglected family. It will chronicle the impact of their saga on the thinking of Abraham Lincoln, who watched, as the country did, as the Todds publicly disintegrated. Most important, it will use the Todds to explore the metaphor of the divided house, through which the nation interpreted its experience of war.

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