H. L. Mencken may have been correct when he characterized the historian as nothing more than a failed novelist. I tried writing imaginary stories about the Civil War as early as junior high school, during the Civil War centennial, and into early adulthood I began a number of manuscripts that I hoped to turn into historical novels. So poor was I at developing plot and character, and so intently did I try to improve the accuracy of the historical details, that eventually the fiction withered away completely. All that was left was history.

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