My Vicksburg

by Ann Rinaldi

First published 2009

Amazon

3.9(19)

Claire Louise Corbet’s family is divided by the Civil War as Union forces close around Vicksburg. The long siege drives civilians into caves, reduces food supplies and forces her to reconsider easy labels of loyalty when relatives and neighbours make different choices.

The novel keeps military strategy at the edge of a child’s immediate world of hunger, fear and fractured trust. Claire Louise learns that affection can cross political divisions but cannot erase the consequences of war, especially in a slaveholding society where freedom and family mean different things to different people.