Names of the American Civil War

The most common name for the American Civil War in modern American usage is simply "The Civil War". Although rarely used during the war, the term "War Between the States" became widespread afterward in the Southern United States. During and immediately after the war, Northern historians often used the terms "War of the Rebellion" and "Great Rebellion", and the Confederate term was "War for Southern Independence", which regained some currency in the 20th century but has again fallen out of use. The name "Slaveholders' Rebellion" was used by Frederick Douglass and appeared in newspaper articles during that era. "Freedom War" is used to celebrate the war's effect of ending slavery.

During the Jim Crow era of the 1950s, the term "War of Northern Aggression" developed under the Lost Cause of the Confederacy movement by Southern historical revisionists or negationists. This label was coined by segregationists in an effort to equate contemporary efforts to end segregation with 19th-century efforts to abolish slavery.

Several names also exist for the forces on each side; the opposing forces named battles differently as well. The Union forces frequently named battles for bodies of water that were prominent on or near the battlefield, but Confederates most often used the name of the nearest town. Likewise, the Union practice was to name their armies for the river valleys where they initially operated, while the Confederacy generally used state names. While Army names might sometimes be confused—such as Army of the Tennessee (Union, named for the river) and Army of Tennessee (Confederate, named for the state)—in the case of the many battles with two or more names that have had varying use, one name has eventually tended to take precedence (with some notable exceptions). Commentators sometimes explain the naming scheme as linked to the economic and demographic differences between North and South—to the more industrialized North natural features like creeks would be notable, whereas the more rural and agrarian Southerners would consider towns more remarkable. In truth both North and South were far less urbanized than modern societies; most Americans North and South did not live in cities, and the majority of workers were agricultural laborers of some sort.