The Chrysalis: An American Family Endures the Civil War

Christmas Eve of 1860 finds the northern Madden family and their southern relatives preparing for a celebration. Philip Madden, a journalist and sheep farmer, and his wife Mary, along with their three children are entertaining their visiting family, the Ingrams. Cully Ingram, an attorney in Richmond and a plantation owner in Georgia, his wife Claudie, and their daughter have been enjoying the peaceful, snowy evening at Galway Farm in the northern boarder state of Maryland.

The fathers are at...