In My Father's House

By an extraordinary quirk, the McLean family entertained Confederates at their Manassas home just before the battle of Bull Run--and also hosted the peace negotiations at Appomattox, where they had moved to escape the war. Staying close to documented facts, as detailed in an excellent note, Rinaldi uses the McLeans' lives to dramatize the war's moral dilemmas. From his marriage in 1852, Will McLean has an uneasy relationship with his feisty seven-year-old stepdaughter Osceola (``Oscie''), the na...