American Civil War

[odette_river]

So...what did people at the time call the American Civil War? I was wandering around a graveyard the other day (strange, I know) and found a few gravestones with "War of 1861" on them, so I'm tending to think that's what it was... Anyone know for sure?

Comments

[meghatron]

I have a great aunt who still refers to it as "The War of Northern Aggression."

[spiderine]

The "War Between the States", I think. Sometimes called "The Brothers' War", since families often had split loyalties.

[spicymachaggis]

I'm pretty sure Southerners called it either "War of Northern Agression" or "War of Secession". War of Northern Agression may have been coined after the fighting was over but I'm not too sure.
Northerners called it "War Between the States" or "The Civil War"
The tombstone probably said "War of 1861" because they didn't know then how wide the conflict would spread.

[chazzbanner]

Post-war in the North it was called The War of the Rebellion. Books of soldier reminiscences use that as the title.

[fshk]

Lincoln referred to it as "a civil war" in the Gettysburg address; a lot of newspaper articles and correspondence at the time refer to it simply as "the war."

"The War of Northern Aggression" is such an interesting example of spin. The South seceded and fired the first shots.

[spicymachaggis]

I agree.
But then again, my side won

[bellesayuri]

Yet most of the fighting was done in the South, with very few battles above the Mason-Dixon Line. The poor and rural citizens, who were out of touch with all the politics which surrounded the secession, only saw "Northern invaders" coming down to do what soldiers do in wars, so to them it was "aggression".

I've been told that some people have referred (still refer? Surely not) to it as "The Late Unpleasantness". :P

[malfeasanceses]

What a great euphemism!