My Vicksburg

Claire is 13. Her brother is a doctor in the Union Army, and her father is a doctor in the Confederate Army. She lives with her mother and five-year-old brother in Vicksburg in May of 1863, just as General Grant's forces begin their bombardment of the city.

The book tells how the people in the city had to live in caves and cellars, and how the Union bombardment would be most of the daylight except for certain hours, precisely. It tells about how most of the people in the city ended up near starvation as the siege wore on.

Claire's family is lucky, though, as her Union brother is able to bring her some food. Since he's a doctor, it seems that he's pretty much free to go where he will, even into a Confederate city, although he is expected to help out in treated the wounded.

There's a small sub-plot of a girl who dresses up as a man to go fight (a subject covered in Ann Rinaldi's book Girl in Blue), and she ends up badly injured and loses an arm.

There's a second plot about a Confederate soldier who Claire's brother is treating and who he brings into the city. This is the man who lost some papers that allowed the Union to win a battle that they otherwise would have lost. The brother believes it is his duty to turn in the soldier to the Confederate Army (desertion, of course, but losing those battle papers would have brought on a severe penalty in itself), but Claire thinks he should go free.

It's another well-done book from Ann Rinaldi.

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