Civil War

Alphin, Elaine Marie - Ghost Cadet (182 pages) Twelve-year-old Benjy, in Virginia visiting the grandmother he has never met, meets the ghost of a Virginia Military Institute cadet who was killed in the Battle of New Market in 1864 and helps him recover his family’s treasured gold watch.

Armstrong, Jennifer - Dreams of Mairhe Mehan (119 pages) 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.

Beatty, Patricia –

• Charley Skedaddle (186 pages) During the Civil War, a 12-year-old Bowery Boy from New York City joins the Union Army as a drummer, deserts during a battle in Virginia, and encounters a hostile old mountain woman.
• Eben Tyne, Powdermonkey (227 pages) A 13-year-old powdermonkey in the Confederate navy joins the crew of the ironclad Merrimack in a mission to break the Union blockade of Norfolk harbor.
• Turn Homeward, Hannalee (193 pages) 12-year-old Hannalee Reed, forced to relocate in Indiana along with other Georgia mill workers during the Civil War, leaves her mother with a promise to return home when the war ends.
• Who Comes With Cannons (186 pages) In 1861, 12-year-old Truth, a Quaker girl from Indiana, is staying with relatives who run a North Carolina station of the Underground Railroad, when her world is changed by the beginning of the Civil War.

Brill, Marlene Targ - Diary of a Drummer Boy (48 pages) The fictionalized diary of a 12-year-old boy who joins the Union army as a drummer, and ends up fighting in the Civil War.

Clapp, Patricia - Tamarack Tree: A Novel of the Siege of Vicksburg (214 pages) An eighteen-year-old English girl finds her loyalties divided and all her resources tested as she and her friends experience the terrible physical and emotional hardships of the forty-seven day siege of Vicksburg in the spring of 1863.

Climo, Shirley - Month of Seven Days (152 pages) When twelve-year-old Zoe's Georgia home is taken over by Union soldiers, she uses all her ingenuity to drive them away.

Collier, James Lincoln – With Every Drop of Blood (253 pages) While trying to transport food to Richmond, Virginia, during the Civil War, fourteen-year-old Johnny is captured by a black Union soldier.

Denenberg, Barry - When Will This Cruel War Be Over?: The Civil War Diary of Emma Simpson (156 pages) (Dear America series) The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.

Duey, Kathleen –

• Amelina Carrett, Bayou Grand Coeur, Louisiana, 1863 (137 pages) (American Diaries series) When thirteen-year-old Amelina saves the life of a young Yankee spy found injured near her Louisiana home in 1863, the orphaned girl creates a dangerous situation for herself and her uncle.
• Emma Eileen Grove: Mississippi 1865 (140 pages) (American Diaries series) The diary of a fictional fourteen-year-old girl living in Virginia, in which she describes the hardships endured by her family and friends during one year of the Civil War.

Fleischman, Paul - Bull Run (104 pages) Northerners, Southerners, generals, couriers, dreaming boys, and worried sisters describe the glory, the horror, the thrill, and the disillusionment of the first battle of the Civil War.

Gauch, Patricia Lee - Thunder at Gettysburg (46 pages) Fourteen-year-old Tillie becomes involved in the tragic battle that took place July 1-3, 1863.

Hansen, Joyce - Which Way Freedom? (120 pages) 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. The sequel is titled Out From This Place.

Henty, G. A. - With Lee in Virginia: A Story of the American Civil War (410 pages) Reissue of 1888 edition. Presents, chronologically, some of the great battles during the Northern invasion of Virginia during the Civil War.

Hill, Pamela Smith - Voice From the Border (244 pages) 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.

Howe, James - Dances with Wolves: A Story for Children (60 pages) A Civil War army officer is sent west and becomes deeply involved in the affairs of an Indian tribe.

Houston, Gloria - Mountain Valor (239 pages) With her father and brothers gone to serve in the Civil War and her mother sick, teenage Valor ignores what is proper behavior for a girl and fights to defend her North Carolina mountain farm.

Hunt, Irene - Across Five Aprils (233 pages) Too young to fight in the Civil War with his brothers, Jethro learns to survive harsh winters and backbreaking farmwork. His greatest battle, however, is with a masked rider who murdered his sister and who will live in his nightmares until he can avenge her death.

Kassem, Lou - Listen for Rachel (164 pages) Moving up into the mountains of Tennessee introduces Rachel to a possible calling, as she learns about folk medicine from a local healer, until the Civil War divides the family loyalties and brings romance into her life.

Keith, Harold - Rifles for Watie (332 pages) This Newbery Award book tells the story of Jeff Bussey, a sixteen-year-old infantry soldier in the Civil War. At first Jeff can’t wait to defend the Union but soon he finds that the rebels are men he can like and admire. He even falls in love with a rebel girl. Now Jeff must choose, escape the enemy or join it.

Massie, Elizabeth - 1863: A House Divided (178 pages) Part of the Young Founders series. Two years after the start of the Civil War, 16-year-old twins Susanne and Stephen are alarmed by the news that Confederate forces are about to invade the North. The twins are separated after Stephen joins the army and Susanne joins a nursing outfit. They maintain a correspondence, unaware that their town of Gettysburg is about to become a decisive battleground.

Murphy, Jim - Journal of James Edmond Pease, a Civil War Union Soldier (173 pages) (My name is America series) James Edmond, a sixteen-year-old orphan, keeps a journal of his experiences and those of "G" Company which he joined as a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Nixon, Joan Lowery –

• Dangerous Promise (148 pages) (Orphan train adventures series) In 1861, while living with his foster parents at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, twelve-year-old Mike Kelly and his best friend Todd Blakely join the Union army as drummer boys but their dreams of glory end when they experience the full horrors of war at the Battle of Wilson's Creek in Missouri.
• Keeping Secrets (163 pages) In 1863, eleven-year-old Peg Kelly is drawn into the dangerous activities of a mysterious young woman who had come to her home in Missouri after fleeing the raid of William Quantrill and his raiders on Lawrence, Kansas.

O'Dell, Scott - 290 (118 pages) A shipyard apprentice finds high adventure aboard the S.S. Alabama, a Confederate ship which sails the Atlantic destroying Union vessels.

Optic, Oliver - Taken By the Enemy (351 pages) (Blue and the Gray series) First in the series of Blue and the Gray. Reissue of 1888 title. Captain Passford and his family are Northerners, but like many, his brother lives in the South. At the outbreak of civil war Passford’s daughter is visiting his brother, so he and his son Christy travel through enemy lines to bring her back North to safety.

Paulsen, Gary –

• Culpepper’s Cannon (90 pages) Dunc Culpepper and his friend Amos go back in time to 1862, while researching the Civil War cannon in the town square.
• Soldier's Heart: A Novel of the Civil War (106 pages) Eager to enlist, fifteen-year-old Charley has a change of heart after experiencing both the physical horrors and mental anguish of Civil War combat.

Porter, Connie Rose - Meet Addy, an American Girl (69 pages) In this first book of the Addy series, nine-year-old Addy Walder escapes from a cruel life of slavery to freedom during the Civil War.

Pryor, Bonnie - Joseph: A Rumble of War, 1861 (American Adventure Series) (170 pages) After his stepfather becomes an abolitionist, ten-year-old Joseph struggles with his own thoughts about slavery as he sees its divisive power in his small Kentucky town.

Reeder, Carolyn –

• Across the Lines (220 pages) Edward, the son of a white plantation owner, and his black house servant and friend Simon witness the siege of Petersburg during the Civil War.
• Shades of Gray (152 pages) At the end of the Civil War, 12-year-old Will, having lost all his immediate family, reluctantly leaves his city home to live in the Virginia countryside with his aunt and the uncle he considers a "traitor" because he refused to take part in the war.

Rinaldi, Ann - Acquaintance with Darkness (294 pages) When her mother dies and her best friend's family is implicated in the assassination of President Lincoln, fourteen-year-old Emily Pigbush must go live with an uncle she suspects of being involved in stealing bodies for medical research.

Steele, William - The Perilous Road (156 pages) Fourteen-year-old Chris, bitterly hating the Yankees for invading his Tennessee mountain home, learns a difficult lesson about the waste of war and the meaning of tolerance and courage when he reports the approach of a Yankee supply troop to the Confederates, only to learn that his brother is probably part of that troop.

Stolz, Mary - Ballad of the Civil War (54 pages) Weary of the war, a Union lieutenant recalls his life with his twin brother on their family's Virginia plantation and the events that led them to fight on different sides in the Civil War.

Wisler, G. Clifton –

• The Drummer Boy of Vicksburg (133 pages) In this fact-based story, fourteen-year-old drummer boy Orion Howe displays great bravery during a Civil War battle at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
• Mr. Lincoln's drummer (131 pages) Recounts the courageous exploits of Willie Johnston, an eleven-year-old Civil War drummer, who became the youngest recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
• Red Cap (160 pages) A young Yankee drummer boy displays great courage when he’s captured and sent to Andersonville Prison.
• Thunder on the Tennessee (154 pages) Following his father's example, sixteen-year old Willie Delamer joins the Second Texas Regiment and leaves his beloved Texas to fight for the Confederacy.