The Civil War, also known as the War of Northern Aggression, was a military conflict in the US from 1861-1865. The North fought to force the South to rejoin the Union, and after the war, Northerners referred to it as a war against slavery and insurrection, while Southerners used terms like “Mr. Lincoln’s War.” Some Southern residents continue to use terms like “Northern War of Aggression” to reflect their beliefs about why the war was fought. The different stories that have emerged illustrate the difficulty of reporting a conflict neutrally.
The War of Northern Aggression is one of the alternative names for the military conflict that took place in the United States between 1861-1865. The generally accepted term for this conflict is the Civil War, and this is the term most commonly found in textbooks and other references. However, some people continue to refer to this conflict as the Northern War of Aggression, and the Civil War naming disputes reveal lingering resentments and a variety of cultural attitudes.
The conflict began when several Southern states seceded from the United States, known as the Union, and formed the Confederate States, known as the Confederacy. The secession was prompted by the election of President Abraham Lincoln, a well-known opponent of slavery, although a number of other factors were also involved. Rather than allow the southern states to secede peacefully, the Union fought to force the Confederacy to rejoin the Union, and was ultimately successful.
In war, the victors tend to name the conflict, as well as tell most of the stories. In the aftermath of the war, many Northerners referred to the conflict with names referencing slavery and union, such as the “War of Insurrection” and the “War of the Slaveholders.” Southerners, embittered by what they felt was interference, used terms like “Civil War” and “Mr. Lincoln’s War”. Some people have stuck to more neutral phrases like the “War from 1861 to 1865.” Eventually, people settled on “civil war” as the term for conflict.
Terms such as “Northern War of Aggression” and “War Between the States” are in use by some Southern residents. They reflect a certain amount of southern pride, as well as beliefs about why the war was fought, placing blame for events on the north and its refusal to allow the Confederacy to secede and form its own government. Some critics have suggested that people using terms like “Northern War of Aggression” are romanticizing the events of the Civil War and the antebellum South.
Because the Northern version of events tends to dominate Civil War textbooks and references, the insistence on referring to the conflict as the Northern War of Aggression might be considered a subtle form of rebellion by some Southerners. Historians have written extensively about the conflict from a variety of perspectives, using a variety of terms to refer to it. The different stories that have emerged illustrate that it can be difficult to report a conflict neutrally.
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