The confusion is warranted. So, essentially, what I did was swap out the names and dates for different ones before I posted it. I even kind of did it in a way that almost made sense, just to make it a little more confusing.

A few years back I posted--albeit on a different website--a neat incident in history I found and the story I planned to write about it. Someone else then also said they liked that idea, and they wrote it faster than I did. Go figure, it got published in a pretty respected online magazine after that. And while I hadn't written anything at that point so I wasn't plagiarized, and dramatizing things from history is of course fair game so I can't even say they "stole" anything from me, it was still an experience I didn't really enjoy.

Hence why I changed everything up in here when I posted it. Ever since I found the story (and it is a true story) I've been super jealous of it and have tried to protect it like a crazy prospector who has found an unmined vein of gold. Probably overkill for a manuscript that will never receive anything more than form rejections, but if I hadn't done it this way, I wouldn't have been comfortable enough to post it. And if I wasn't comfortable enough to post it, I wouldn't have gotten all the helpful advice other users have offered.

I knew my post would raise an eyebrow or two with people familiar with history in the UK, but I didn't expect such a thorough demolition job. Anyway, I'm sorry about this, but I hope the explanation gives you more relief than irritation.