History Abounds in Richmond, Virginia
The first time I set foot in Richmond, Virginia, I was an aspiring writer working on a (terrible) novel about a family torn apart by differing loyalties during the Civil War. Newly married, living in Charlottesville, Virginia, I was fascinated by the amount of resources the state of Virginia provided about the war, its background, and the lives of the people who fought in it.
Historic homes on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Va. (James Kirkikis/Shutterstock)
I was in Richmond to visit the American Civil War Museum at Historic Tredegar and the White House of the Confederacy. As a born and raised New Yorker, I had little understanding of the complexities of the war and the tumultuous years that led up to it. I expected to spend the entire day in the museum, head buried in displays and paragraphs of text I could eventually transfer to the backdrop of my book.