Sid and the Orphans by Nancy Glenn Powell

During the early years of the Civil War, fifteen-year-old Sid, her younger brother and her Pa leave Missouri with a wagon train on their way to the Colorado Territory. Sid does not want to leave her mother's grave, but Pa says they must go help his brother, who has a broken leg, and they need to get away from the war before he is conscripted to fight. Along the way they find an abandoned girl, Sid delivers a stillborn colt, and a dying woman's baby. Indians attack the wagon train, and horse thieves try to steal their animals. The struggles continue after they reach the ranch, but Sid, a tomboy with a take charge attitude, can ride, shoot and handle almost any problem that comes her way. The family files on homesteads as Sid fights her inner fears and her love for one of the young men she helped to survive the harsh western life.