Girl in Blue

Girl in Blue is a 2001 novel by Ann Rinaldi. It is a historical fiction that takes place during 1861, during the American Civil War."It starts with a girl who lives on a farm near a small village in Michigan in the 1860s. Her father is abusive and wants her to marry an abusive neighbor who had several children. She runs away to Flint, Michigan to stay with an aunt, and then ships out with a regiment to fight in the Civil War as a man. She ends up working in a hospital as a gopher. She fights in the first Bull Run. She shoots a man and ends up falling asleep to men who die in the night. She goes on a mission for the doctor she works for to get medicine from a doctor he knows on the Southern side. She meets the doctor's wife who ends up shooting her and eventually reports her as female to the Union. The doctor says she can no longer be a soldier, but he's friends with Pinkerton and may work as a spy. After she is trained her mission is to be a maid in Rose Greenhow's house. She is to find a diary. She finds the diary with the help of Rose Greenhow's daughter and Capt. Sheldon. She falls in love with the Capt. She turns him in as a spy when she catches Rose in his arms. He's not. He ignores her. She's depressed again. Goes home to Michigan to see her family, but is dressed as a man. Dad's dead, died in an 'accident.' Sister is going to marry the man who was supposed to marry the main character before she ran off. Main character, Sarah, goes back to Pinkerton Agency in Washington D.C."