Civil War or War between States - please advise.

[Bob from England]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask a question about History but I have an enquiry.

I like to spend time reading History, not only British, but also European and N. American, and over the last few years have read quite a lot about the US Civil War. 

However, I note that some commentators refer to it as "The war between the States" and appear to get irritated by it being called the Civil War; can anyone help me with this?

If you are travelling through the US are there any areas where you would get in trouble for calling the conflict the Civil War?

[1611mac]

Interesting... I was born and raised in rural Indiana and in the late 70's moved to North Carolina as an adult. There is quite a bit of referring to the "South" around here, mostly jokes and such, with quite a bit of that coming from pulpits of visiting preachers, etc.  But I don't know that I've ever actually heard anyone refer to "The war between the States" in actual conversation.  I doubt that one would raise any eyebrows for calling it "the Civil War" but if so, it would most likely be because you didn't refer to it in some "folksy" "funny" "local" way.... MUCH MUCH more of an issue the the confederate flag which still flies along side the U.S. flag in some places (and peoples yards) and the "Confederacy."  

btw... I spent some time in the west pastoring and assisting Missionary Pastors to the Ute and Navajo nations.  I learned very quickly that they are referred to as Native Americans and not "indians."  My point being.. words do matter so your question is a good one.

Edited February 27, 2017 by 1611mac
added bottom paragraph

[heartstrings]

Isn't a "civil war" a situation where two factions are striving for control of one country? But here you had TWO. It's War Between the States among most of my associations. Some of my family and friends even call It the "War of Northern Aggression" (which is accurate) I won't get into all the reasons right now but I will say, we need to learn from the past lest we repeat it.

[Rebecca]

In school, it was called the "Civil War", although we did learn two other titles: "The War of Northern Aggression" and "The War Between the States", but in everyday conversation, it was referred to as the Civil War. Until I moved to Arkansas for a few years, and it was one of the other two titles only because people there were....passionate about the subject.

[...]

It sounds like the people who are giving you a hard time about calling it the Civil War, are southerners.  The way it written in textbooks (at least in the North; I have never seen a "Southern" textbook), the way it is referred to in documentaries and other films here, is "The Civil War."  I have heard people from outside of the U.S. refer to it as the American Civil War, since ours is not the only civil war that has been fought in the world.  However, I have never been corrected and told not to call it the Civil War.  As I said, the other names for it are probably something that is used exclusively by southerners.  This is coming from a born and raised Yankee and means no disrespect to my Rebel brothers, not am I making a statement for or against the war in this post.

Edited February 27, 2017 by Brother Stafford

[Invicta]

Civil wars are rarely very civil. I onder where that title came from?

[Salyan]

It's from the other definition of 'civil' - relating to individual citizens. You see it in civil government, civil service, etc. It incorporates the sense of local (as opposed to foreign) rule, and the non-religious rule of law. So it's a civil war in that it was between citizens (of the Republic, if not the State) and did not directly involve any foreign power.

Wikipedia defines civil rule as being the non-military rule of a State. If that's a workable definition, then 'Civil War' would basically mean 'State War' - not so far from 'War between the States after all.

If Civil War is the name given by the North (who was it that said that history is written by the victors?), then I can see why the South doesn't like it!  It is the most common name used in Canada, FWIW.

[No Nicolaitans]

As a Southerner, I've heard it called by every name mentioned so far. In my area, there are people who are still passionate about the topic and may take offense to using the wrong terminology; however, I'm not one of them. I refer to it as the Civil War. 

My advice would be to use the terminology "Civil War", and if someone corrects you, simply apologize and use their preferred terminology while in their presence. I would think that 99.9% of the time, "Civil War" will be accepted.

[Bob from England]

Many thanks for your comments they were very helpful.

I do have 2 more  questions - is there, in the South, a day in April called "Confederate Memorial Day"?, (I seem to remember watching film about a young girl who was murdered on a special confederate day in 1913, I think it was called "The ballad of Mary Phagan") and on that day do government buildings fly the confederate flag as a concession to Southerners? 

I do hope you don't mind a Brit asking questions about your history, but I have a deep fascination for the Civil War subject.

[...]

That may be something they do in the southern states, but I have never heard of Confederate Memorial Day.  I do know that there are plenty of southern-specific terms and traditions of which northerners are un aware.

30 minutes ago, The real Bob Hutton said:

I do hope you don't mind a Brit asking questions about your history, but I have a deep fascination for the Civil War subject.

I, for one, don't mind at all.  Just out of curiosity, what is it about our Civil War that fascinates you?

[Bob from England]

13 minutes ago, Brother Stafford said:

That may be something they do in the southern states, but I have never heard of Confederate Memorial Day.  I do know that there are plenty of southern-specific terms and traditions of which northerners are un aware.

I, for one, don't mind at all.  Just out of curiosity, what is it about our Civil War that fascinates you?

When I was a young boy I saw a film "The red badge of courage", I think it starred Audie Murphy, and my interest was piqued from that point.  None of my relatives seemed to know anything about it, so I determined to find out as much as I could by borrowing books from the library and so forth.

[No Nicolaitans]

Perhaps it's due to my work schedule, but I live in Georgia, and this is the first I've ever heard of it...and it's a Georgia state holiday according to this...

https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/confederate-memorial-day

[Salyan]

This thread is really piquing my interest, too. It's neat to see the difference between a country's perspective of itself, and the perspective of a foreigner looking in.  Our national identity seems to be evenly divided between British-influence and American-influence, and we love comparing the two, as well as comparing American vs. Canadian cultural norms from the perspectives of nationals from both nations (#1 favorite topic when talking to Americans).

In The Great Escape, there's a scene where the American prisoners have decided to celebrate July 4 by making moonshine, dressing in bunting, and parading through the camp whistling 'Yankee Doodle'. The first response by a British prisoner to "What are they doing?" is "They're celebrating the Revolution!". It was intriguing to think how the War of Independence (as the Americans call it, and Canadians too) would have been viewed by the British as a mere revolution.

[HappyChristian]

I know it's basically been answered, but a civil war is one fought between citizens of the same country. It's not a name the north gave to it, though - the north called it the "war of secession" while the south called it (as has been stated) the "war of northern aggression" (and that is the title I agree with because it was aggression by the north that brought it about - I'm neither a northerner nor a southerner, having been born in Seattle  =D ). Many southerners I know still refer to it as "the late unpleasantness" (because we all know about southern gentility, right?).  The term "civil war" is actually an historic description of who fought the war (as Salyan mentioned re: no foreign powers directly involved).

As for the Revolutionary War, a revolution, as defined, is a forcible overthrow of an existing government or social order in favor of a new one. Hence, our War for Independence was indeed a revolution. Too bad there is a silent revolution on now, that looks to be winning.

 

 

[weary warrior]

As a proud Southerner of many generations, I have studied the "War of Northern Agression" (see what I did there?) to a degree not many have bothered, and I'm certainly not offended by how it is called, but to this day I refuse to sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

True story - in 2000, a bunch of us left Tennessee and Texas together to meet in Sydney for the summer olympics for 2 weeks of outreach. We passed out over 1,000,000 tracts in over 400 languages. The local Baptist church there hosted us one Sunday, and it happened to be on the weekend of the 4th of July. I suppose they were trying to be good hosts, for they truely were wonderful people, because one of the hymns they chose was The Battle Hymn of the Republic. As we stood there, I couldn't help it, I had turn and look behind me, and there were 7 or 8 pews full of unreconstructed southerners just standing there quietly while surrounded by a large church full of Aussies blithly singing a Northern fight song for us at the top of their lungs. 

No one was offended, there was no trouble, and we appreciated the thought and innocence in which it took place. But we still would not sing it.