The Garrett Family faces an alarming situation. War is declared and they're in the thick of it. On the border between the Confederacy and the Union, Maryland families live on both sides of their brand-new, disconcerting border. Friends and neighbors are forced to take sides.

The listener witnesses unrest in California and conflict in Arizona. Back East, green soldiers flock to their flags and tragedy strikes at the Union debacle, Ball's Bluff.

Soon after, we stand with Confederate militia to watch the Union beaten again in the first Battle of Antietam.

Burned out for ministering to runaways, the Garrets sell their land and move in with relatives closer to the Mason-Dixon. Amid it all, a slave girl rescued by Geoffrey Garrett is kidnapped by her previous owner. An exciting chase ensues along the banks of the Potomac.

In our story, we visit Lincoln in Washington and Davis in Richmond. We see the Union blockade form then run the blockade all the way to Nassau. We experience the Union's incursions into the Carolinas. McClellan gathers troops on the Peninsula to march on Richmond, while Fortress Monroe becomes a burgeoning haven for runaways.

The Garretts are thankful to have survived another year but dread the future.

After our wild adventure up, down and across our war-torn country, our novel embarks on a heartwarming, whirlwind Christmas tour of our characters' homes - North and South.

This is fiction — but set in the historical Civil War you may not know