Names of the American Civil War: Difference between revisions

The American Civil War has been known by numerous alternative names that reflect the historical, political, and cultural sensitivities of different groups and regions. Unlike some other civil wars, the conflict was not fought over control of a single government, but rather was fought to defeat a secession movement. The combatants, armies, and battles of the war also had distinctive names used at the time and historically.

The following names have been, or are, used to describe the conflict itself, listed roughly by frequency of use:

• Civil War: The most common term for the conflict, it has been used by the overwhelming majority of popular historians and journalists in the United States since the early 20th century. The National Park Service, the government organization entrusted by the U.S. Congress to preserve the battlefields of the war, uses this term. As the vast majority of discussion and study on this topic takes place in the United States, the internationalized/disambiguated variation American Civil War is not colloquial and is uncommon in popular or scholarly discussion within the United States unless comparisons are made with other nations.

• War Between the States: This term was never used during the war but was coined immediately afterwards by Alexander Stephens, the former Confederate Vice President. During the war Confederates talked about "The War between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America." Stephens shortened this term. Northerners disliked the term because they rejected the legitimate existence of the Confederacy and also rejected the idea that states were fighting states. Confederates at the time thought their new nation was fighting another nation and did not consider it a war between states while it was going on. Union loyalists thought the United States—the nation as a whole—was putting down a rebellion. After 1890 the term seemed the least provocative one possible, and so it was common from 1900 to 1940. The Congressional Record of March 2, 1928, cites Senate joint resolution No. 41, recognizing this term. The USMC War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery also uses this term.

• War of the Rebellion: This was the official term used by the U.S. government until 1900. The 1880 U.S. War Department report and compilation of Union army and Confederate army records (the Official Records) was entitled The War of the Rebellion. This term is often seen on Northern war monuments. An alternative usage is War of Southern Rebellion.

• War of Southern Independence: While popular on the Confederate side during the war itself, this term's popularity fell in the immediate aftermath of the South's failure to gain independence. It made a comeback in the late 20th century among Confederate heritage groups such as the League of the South and the Sons of Confederate Veterans.

• War for States Rights: Another Confederate-coined phrase that became popular at the time, since many people in the South believed that the Central Federal government was excerting too much influence in internal State matters, and saw the war as a fight for the right for each state to govern itself without external intereference from Washington. This idea of State independence was a central theme in the Confederacy, and sometimes led to internal disagreements between member states who refused to submit to proclamations given from Richmond on the grounds that President Davis did not have direct authority over them.

• War of Northern Aggression: This term emphasizes claims by Confederate partisans that the North invaded the South.

Other terms for the war have seen much less frequent usage, particularly in modern times. In the South: War in Defense of Virginia, Mr. Lincoln's War, and War of Secession. In the North: War of the Insurrection, War to Save the Union, War for Abolition, and War to Prevent Southern Independence.

Immediately after the war, the following expressions were common: The War, The Late Unpleasantness, and The Lost Cause.

U.S. forces were popularly referred to as "the Union,", "Federals", "the North," or "Yankees"; their Confederate counterparts were commonly referred to as "the Confederacy," "the South," "Rebels," or "Dixie." Soldiers who fought for the North were referred to as "Billy Yanks"; those who fought for the South were called "Johnny Rebs." In addition, Northerners who sympathized with the Southern cause were known as "Copperheads".

In addition to differences in naming the war between North and South, there is a disparity between the sides in naming some of the battles of the war. In the North, battles were frequently named for rivers or creeks that were prominent on or near the battlefield; in the South, the nearest town was used. Not all of the disparities are based on this land-versus-water conflict. Most modern accounts of Civil War battles use the names established by the North. However, for some battles, the Southern name has become the standard. The National Park Service frequently uses the southern names for their battlefield parks located in the South, presumably in deference to local sensibilities or because the town names are more frequently found on maps accessible to tourists than are river names. Some examples of battles with dual names are:

Civil War armies were also named in a manner reminiscent of the battlefields: Northern armies were frequently named for major rivers (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Tennessee, Army of the Mississippi, etc.), Southern armies for states or geographic regions (Army of Northern Virginia, Army of Tennessee, Army of Mississippi).

Units smaller than armies were named differently in many cases. Union brigades were given numeric designations (1st, 2nd, ...), whereas Confederate brigades were frequently named after their commanding general (Hood's Brigade, Gordon's Brigade, ...). Confederate brigades so-named retained the name of the original commander even when commanded temporarily by another man; for example, at the Battle of Gettysburg, Hoke's Brigade was commanded by Isaac Avery and Nicholl's Brigade by Jesse Williams. Nicknames were common in both armies, such as the Iron Brigade and the Stonewall Brigade. Union artillery batteries were generally named numerically, Confederate batteries by the name of the town in which they were recruited.

• National Park Service
• Civil War Battle Names
• U.S. War Dept., The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
• Musick, Michael P., "Civil War Records: A War by Any Other Name." Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives. Summer 1995, Vol. 27, No. 2.

• Official Records of the American Civil War