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Civil War Fiction

Armstrong, Jennifer. Becoming Mary Mehan

(2002) Mairhe, who lives in an Irish slum in Washington, D.C., in the 1860s, struggles to come to grips with the impact of the Civil War on her family. In the second novel, while working as a servant in the home of a naturalist, Mary Mehan gradually recovers from the numbing effects of her experience as a Civil War nurse and falls in love with a man who has lost his hearing.

Brenaman, Miriam. Evvy's Civil War

(2002) In Virginia in 1860, on the verge of the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Evvy chafes at the restrictions that her society places on both women and slaves.

Collier, James. With every drop of blood

(1994) While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.

Crane, Stephen. Red badge of Courage

(1983)As he faces battle in the Civil War for the first time, a young Union soldier comes to grips with his fear and conflicting emotions about war

Elliott, L.M. Annie Between the States

(2006, c2004) Instead of spending her teen years at parties and balls, Annie, an idealistic, poetry-loving Confederate, finds herself nursing soldiers, hiding valuables, and running the household as the Civil War rages around her family's Virginia home.

Fricke, Anna. Bayou Blues

(c2001) While visiting Jen's cousin Monique in New Orleans, Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen sense gloom and evil on the southern plantation where Monique's relative Isabella Percy died waiting for her true love to return from the Civil War.

Hansen, Joyce. Heart Calls Home

(2002) After fighting as a Union officer in the Civil War, former slave Obi Booker returns to South Carolina to make a new life for himself and his beloved Easter.

Hansen, Joyce. Which Way Freedom

(1992, c1986)Obi escapes from slavery during the Civil War, joins a black Union regiment, and soon becomes involved in the bloody fighting at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.

Heath, Lorraine. Samantha and the cowboy

(2002) Hoping to earn the money to rescue her family's Texas farm from ruin, Samantha hires on as a cowhand by calling herself "Sam," but her plan is put in jeopardy after Civil War veteran Matthew Hart discovers her deception.

Hill, Pamela. Voice from the border

(2000) Living in the border state of Missouri during the Civil War, fifteen-year-old Reeves tries to understand her father's decision regarding their slaves.

Hunt, Irene. Across Five Aprils

(1986, c1964) Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.

Keehn,Sally Anna Sunday

(2002)In 1863 twelve-year-old Anna, disguised as a boy and accompanied by her younger brother Jed, leaves their Pennsylvania home and makes the difficult journey to join their wounded father in Winchester, Virginia, where they find themselves in danger from Confederate troops.

Lawlor, Laurie. Wind on the River

(c2000) Fifteen-year-old Private John Griffith Allen, A confederate soldier from South Carolina, survives the Battle of Gettysburg only to be captured and become a prisoner of war. While a prisoner, John Allen switches sides and is sent to a remote Fort in the Dakota Territory where his prejudices are challenged and he is forced to reconsider what it means to be a hero.

Paulsen, Gary. Soldier's Heart: A novel of the civil war

(1998) Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley Goddard has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

Paulsen, Gary. Sarny, A life remembered

(c1997) Continues the adventures of Sarny, the slave girl Nightjohn taught to read, through the aftermath of the Civil War during which time she taught other Blacks and lived a full life until age ninety-four.

Peck, Richard. River between Us

(2003) During the early days of the Civil War, the Pruitt family takes in two mysterious young ladies who have fled New Orleans to come north to Illinois.

Rinaldi, Ann. In My Fathers House

(1993)For two sisters growing up surrounded by the Civil War, there is conflict both outside and inside their house.

Rinaldi, Ann. Girl in Blue

(2001)To escape an abusive father and an arranged marriage, fourteen-year-old Sarah, dressed as a boy, leaves her Michigan home to enlist in the Union Army, and becomes a soldier on the battlefields of Virginia as well as a Union spy working in the house of Confederate sympathizer Rose O'Neal Greenhow in Washington, D.C.