[on his passion for writing about the Civil War] When I was growing up in northern Michigan, all the old men in town were Civil War veterans. We boys used to sit around and listen to their yarns and see them parading in Fourth of July celebrations. There was one old fellow who used to beat his army drum at dusk on summer evenings. I grew up surrounded by the traditions of that war, and I suppose I always had the desire to write about it in the back of my mind.