House of Abraham — Lincoln & The Todds, A Family Divided by War
By Stephen Berry
(January 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, notes, index, 255 pp., 2007. Houghton Mifflin & Company, 215 Park Ave South, New York, N.Y. 10003, $28 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Clint Johnson
Clint Johnson’s latest book is Pursuit: The Chase, Capture, Persecution and Surprising Release of Confederate President Jefferson Davis

Review:
I hope the female readers of Civil War News will forgive me for this sexist observation, but the Todd women were hot! That almost certainly will be the first impression any male browser of this book will get when he thumbs through the photo section and sees Mary’s dark-haired teenaged baby sister, Emilie.

Lincoln thought of her as his favorite relative, right up until she blamed him for the death of her husband during the war. Sure, Mary, future wife of Abraham Lincoln, was plump and definitely the least hottie, but other Todd sisters were babes!

Now, beyond the photo section, this is a deep biography of every Todd relative who had anything remotely to do with Abraham Lincoln. The book starts with an impetuous Todd ancestor who got Daniel Boone into an Indian fight at Blue Licks, Ky., during the American Revolution.

That incident had nothing to do with Lincoln, of course, but it shows the depth of research the author has put into this book, which has 45 pages of notes. One disappointment some diligent readers wanting to track down sources will find is that the bibliography is wrapped up in the notes section.

Now, do average readers want to know this much about the Todds of Lexington, Ky., many of whom later moved to Springfield, Ill., where they would meet an ungainly, lonely, odd lawyer who loved politics? Offhand, one would think the book tells us much more about the in-laws, brothers, sisters and husbands of sisters of a woman married to the 16th president than we need to know.

But the author deftly weaves in enough 19th-century history about other things that the reader ends up finishing the book. We learn about customs such as courtship and how widowers were expected to act after the deaths of first wives.

Even the term “sparking” is defined — meaning that couples were thrown together in a social setting to see if there was any spark at all of attraction.

Mary’s reaction to seeing Lincoln for the first time was to laugh at him — not at his supposed ugliness, but at his height compared to her short stature. At least there was a spark of something that drew them together.

The book does not answer all questions about Lincoln and his wife. There is still little light shed on why Lincoln and Mary Todd broke off their relationship then started it up again, other than Lincoln felt an obligation to marry her.

There are some amusing stories such as how a Todd relative was shocked by the behavior of a family riding in his train car who made no effort to control their unruly boys. The man was telling the story of the rude family to the Todds when he was flabbergasted to see them pull up in front of the house. It was the first visit of Lincoln to Lexington to meet his in-laws even though he and Mary already had two sons in tow.

This is a book about a sad, dysfunctional family (to use a 21st-century term) whom history would have ignored had not one sister married Abraham Lincoln. Of all the things Lincoln had to put up with during his life, dealing with the Todd brothers and sisters, and their Confederate husbands must have been the most painful.