Action Norton, Andre: Ride Proud, Rebel!. V1. 2 Mar 2010

[crutledge]

Andre Alice Norton, née Alice Mary Norton (b. February 17, 1912 in Cleveland, Ohio – d. March 17, 2005) was an American science fiction and fantasy author (with some works of historical fiction and contemporary fiction) under the noms de plume Andre Norton, Andrew North and Allen Weston. Norton published her first novel in 1934, and was the first woman to receive the Gandalf Grand Master Award from the World Science Fiction Society in 1977, and won the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award from the SFWA in 1983.

Excerpt
A man scuttles out of the brush -- and Drew only half sees the figure snapping a gunshot at him . . .

Feeling the sickening impact of the bullet in his middle, suddenly Drew cannot pull any air into his straining lungs. The reins fall from his hands -- but he clings to the saddle as the mule leaps braying ahead. Abruptly from beneath the mule's hoofs the ground gives way -- tumbling both of them into the icy stream! Drew plunges into instant blackness, shutting out the terrible agony shaking him.

". . . dead," says someone above the boy.

Famed storyteller Andre Norton, in Ride Proud, Rebel!, relates the gripping tale of a boy thrust at too young an age into the bloody battles of the Civil War, riding under General Morgan.