Talk:United States Civil War

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Google has 950,000/1,100,000 results, that's far from universally. 'US Civil War' is unambigious and thus better; nobody will get lost because of redirection. --Yooden

I rewrote the first paragraph to give the actual name of the Confederate States of America. "The Confederacy" is as much a nickname as "the Union" was. It is extremely important to distinguish between "Southern States" and "the Confederacy." Several slaveholding states did not (or were not allowed by direct federal troop intervention, i.e., Maryland) secede. They were culturally and politically 'the South,' but are commonly called 'the Border states' --MichaelTinkler, semireconstructed and spatially-displaced-in-Upstate-NY Southerner

Several slaveholding states did not secede.

Never heard of this before. Please tell us which. --Yooden

Kentucky, Missouri, West Virginia, Maryland?, others?

Delaware, too. Yes, Yooden, the whole slavery thing is much more complicated that Federalist historians like to admit. Slaves were freed LAST OF ALL in the non-seceding Union states. --MichaelTinkler

Actually, Missouri sort-of seceded. Read the first chapter of Castell's General Sterling Price and the Civil War West of the Mississippi. He describes the secession convention voting against secession, then a federal army occupying the capital. At this point, the governor and half the legislature escaped and passed an ordnance of secession, while the remainder welcomed the federal troops and replaced their colleagues.

The legality of Missouri's secession was hotly debated even within the Confederate congress, which eventually decided to admit Missouri into the Confederacy and recognize the rump legislature-in-exile as the legimate government of the state. Given federal occupation of most of the state, however, the confederate government was run from Sherman, Texas during the war. This government did, however, launch serious attempts to reclaim the state, under command of Missouri generals leading Missouri forces. Notably Price's Raid of 1864, in which elections were held for the confederate government of the state in what territory the confederates could recapture.

-Ben Brumfield

Actually, I've just read that the MO capital was Camden AR, and then Marshall TX. Updating the article accordingly. -Ben Brumfield

The war is also known in the South as the War Between the States or (now half-humorously) as The War of Northern Aggression.

Ummm.. no one of my mother's generation (born in 1940) would consider that as even half humourously. Many people in the deep south (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, etc.) believe completely that it was a war of Northern Agression. Generally, the closer their families lived to the land desecrated by General Sherman, the deeper it is believed.

I've only heard it mentioned as a humorous name by people whose forefathers didn't have to live through the after effects of the war. (Though honestly, I expect this is true of most wars)

Well, my forefathers did have to live through the after-effects and I do find the name humorous, or at least wry.

But that's neither here nor there.

I'm adding three other names to the article that I don't see mentioned.

1.War of the Rebellion (used in the North officially, along with some nastier ones I don't remember): the Official Records published by the army have this title. 2.War of Southern Independence (seen on a monument on the UGA campus) 3.War in Defence of Virginia (on Confederate muster rolls compiled after the fact by veterans organizations)

-Ben Brumfield

Terminology Question, since some wonderful person is adding battles -- Manasses (sp?) or Bull Run? (Those are the names I'm thinking of, aren't they?) It will be easy to link within other articles as both names, but am just wondering which name is the most common... JHK

"Manassas" (a town near the battlefields) was the name used for the battles in the Confederacy. The Union side named the battles after Bull Run (a creek in the area). Doug McNaught

Can we please come up with a neutral explanation of the causes of the war, without the continuous ideological shuffling of slavery between "primary" and "also included"?

--Ben Brumfield

Suggestions:

something about the economic causes of the war
a note somewhere about how battles have two names because of the river/town thing mentioned above
European reaction to the war

kwertii

I'm trying to understand if there was some self-interest from the Union's point of view in waging a war. I mean, did the Union really care for human-rights and was a true anti-slavery figure or was there something else? User:Yaron Dorman