The conflict known to most of us as the Civil War has a long and checkered nomenclature. To this day some patriotic Southerners wince at the term, Civil War. These partisans usually favor The War Between the States-and some organizations of descendants of Confederate warriors use this term under their by-laws, and none other. The tide seems to stem from the two-volume work by Alexander Stephens, the Confederate Vice-President, published after the war.

Most of the names listed are of Southern origin, since they were defeated and their heirs grasped for some expression of unquenched ardor and defiance which would do justice to the Old South. These names have been seriously, not to say apoplectically, offered to the world.

In a more jocular vein the war has been known as The Late Unpleasantness, The Late Friction, The Late Ruction, The Schism, or The Uncivil War. But in the South in particular it is known simply as The War, as if the planet had not heard a shot fired in anger since '65.

Some Examples:

The War for Constitutional Liberty
The War for Southern Independence
The Second American Revolution
The War for States' Rights
Mr. Lincoln's War
The Southern Rebellion
The War for Southern Rights
The War of the Southern Planters
The War of the Rebellion
The Second War for Independence
The War to Suppress Yankee Arrogance
The Brothers' War
The War of Secession
The Great Rebellion
The War for Nationality
The War for Southern Nationality
The War Against Slavery
The Civil War Between the States
The War of the Sixties
The War Against Northern Aggression
The Yankee Invasion
The War for Separation
The War for Abolition
The War for the Union
The Confederate War
The War of the Southrons
The War for Southern Freedom
The War of the North and South
The Lost Cause

       Source: Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War

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