I have seen several TV and Movies portraying early 20th century Southerners getting (mildly) indignant when some youngster says the “Civil War.” They are instructed to say “War Between the States.”
Why is “Civil War” a taboo term amongst early 20th century Southerners?
Mods, this question might step into IMHO territory, but I thought it was best suited for GQ.
You mean the “War of Northern Aggression” now don’t you? 
This is a WAG, but there was rapidly an effort, as soon as the Civil War was over, to recast it not as a war to preserve the Southern right to own slaves (with it’s attendant issues) but as a war over states rights. Total bullshit, of course.
Thus, a focus more on the states’ role in the genesis in the conflict would require it to be labelled as “The War Between the States” vs. “The Civil War”.
Civil War is a generic term for conflict within a country. There is currently a civil war in Libya.
War Between the States is the name of the American civil war.
I don’t know how I missed that Wiki article when I googled. Thanks.
“War Between the States” isn’t even a particularly accurate name, given that the primary antagonists were the rebel states and the federal government.
Objectively, I’d say that the American Civil War is correctly named “The American Civil War”, or just “The Civil War” from the perspective of an American.
“War Between The States”, if used generically, could refer to any war between independent states (state=country), so I wouldn’t consider that to be any more accurate than “Civil War” without “American” thrown in there somewhere.
For what it’s worth, every history book I’ve read has called it the Civil War. Considering that it was, in fact, a civil war, I don’t see any reason to object to that. Then again, I wasn’t educated in the South.
It’s not the name: it’s just one of several names. One name that I’ve seen used from a contemporary Northern perspective is "War of the Rebellion". But “War between the States” and “American Civil War” both seem to me to be reasonably neutral ways of naming the war of 1861-1865.
Exactly! Or maybe “the Late Unpleasantness.”
I’m not from the deep south but I’ve always heard it called “The Civil War”. I certainly don’t remember being instructed to call it anything else. In fact, isn’t the “Civil War Museum” in Richmond VA? Talking in terms of world history I would call it the “American Civil War.”
Well, it is one name for the American civil war. Not “the” name.
For example, the Center for Military History, the official historian of the US Army, quite freely calls the unpleasantness the Civil War."
I’ve often heard the dry joke that there is never anything civil about war.
It may even be a quote from somebody. I’m not sure.
On the Beverly Hillbillies, Granny wouldn’t even admit that the South lost the war.
Grant stole Lee’s sword and Lee was too much of a gentleman to ask for it back.
She also said that it was the North that seceded and the South fought to preserve the union.
From the Southern perspective, it was a war between states of the FORMER United States. Thus to call it a “civil war” is inaccurate, as the Confederacy considered itself an independent nation.
From the Northern perspective, the Confederacy were rebel states of the Unites States of America and the Confederate States of America was an illegal fabrication, and thus it was actually a civil war.
Lincoln called it a civil war.
An older gentleman once told me, “there was nothing civil about it.” He too preferred War between the States.
Yes, and indeed most of the participants who wrote about the war at the time, from both sides, refer to the conflict as ‘The Civil War’, it’s in the Wiki link above.
On those grounds, the Nigerian Civil War was not a real civil war, because Biafra had declared its independence from Nigeria.
I generally call it “The War of Southern Stupidity,” but that’s just a personal preference.