Naming the American Civil War
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
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 most 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.
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The War
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 twentieth century. The National Park Service, the government organization entrusted by the U.S. Congress to preserve the battlefields of the war, uses (http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/civil.htm) 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 extremely uncommon in popular discussion.
- War Between the States: The usage of this term, as preferred by some reenactment and Southern heritage groups to this day, is based upon a Congressional resolution of the 1920s declaring this the proper designation for the war, in deference to those who asserted that the generic category of "civil war" did not apply to the events of 1861–65 in the United States. The USMC War Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery uses this term. Since the war was in fact contested between states of the North and states of the South, some have suggested that this may be the most neutral term, but it is rarely heard outside of the South in modern times.
- War of the Rebellion: The 1880 U.S. War Department report and compilation of Union and Confederate army records was entitled The War of the Rebellion. This term is often seen on veterans' monuments in Massachusetts. An alternative usage is War of Southern Rebellion.
- War of Southern Independence: Southern partisans believe that the war was fundamentally an effort by the South to gain independence. Some Southern heritage groups, such as the League of the South and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, assert that this is the most accurate and neutral term, since in their view, the war ended the independence of the Confederacy. An alternative term in this vein is Second War of Independence. (During the war, many Southerners used the memory of George Washington, a Virginian, as their model).
- War of Northern Aggression: This term emphasizes claims by southern partisans that the North invaded the South, even though most acknowledge that the first military action of the war was an attack on the United States military at Fort Sumter. An alternative is War Against Southern Independence.
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, and War for Abolition.
Immediately after the war, the following expressions were common: The War and The Late Unpleasantness.
Combatants
U.S. forces were popularly referred to as "the Union," "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."
Battles and armies
In addition to differences in naming the war between North and South, there is a curious 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. Some examples of well-known battles that have two common names:
| Northern name | Southern name |
|---|---|
| First Battle of Bull Run | First Battle of Manassas |
| Battle of Antietam | Battle of Sharpsburg |
| Battle of Shiloh | Battle of Pittsburg Landing |
| Battle of Seven Pines | Battle of Fair Oaks |
Most modern accounts of Civil War battles use the names established by the victorious North. 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 river 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).
External links
- National Park Service (http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/civil.htm)
- The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. (US War Department, 1880) (http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/library/or/index.cfm)
