I’m from Brooklyn, NY, and I’m leaning more towards calling the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression.
I was doing some work on the Mexican-American War, and remarked to my coauthor, a Southern Boy, that the Mexicans refer to that war (in Spanish) as “The War of Northern Aggression.” He said, “Aren’t they all?”
well, then feel free to come on down and have a nice glass of sweet tea then! :)
I have mixed feelings on this whole Civil War history. So sad that slavery was ever condoned and allowed here in the New World. But I also grew up hearing how the South was treated so badly after the war, how brutal Reconstruction was, and how the South still paid a heavy price for its rebellion and secession. Racial prejudice is not a Southern-only thing—it is EVERYWHERE! It’s just that the Southerner is the last “safe” target of reproach, since we’re all supposed to be toothless, dirty, uneducated, simple-minded, drunk on homemade moonshine, shoeless, and armed with any kind of firearm possible. Oh, and some of us are overtly Christian, pro-life, and for traditional marriage, so that’s also held against us.
Maybe everyone else is just plain jealous of our wonderful football teams...I dunno, but it seems that the friendly jesting that used to go on between sections of the country has gone by the wayside, and now every group clings to itself and considers everyone else as EVIL.
We don’t know true evil when we see it, or we are too afraid, too numb to say it.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. I’m just a fiercely proud Southerner (at least 10 generations on BOTH sides of my family—my ancestors came thru Virginia and Louisiana!), but more importantly, a fiercely proud AMERICAN! I see greater need every day for our country to pull together and to fight evil, to be willing to sacrifice for God and country. I see a dreadful future coming to this country as more and more of our civil rights are taken/given away...
A former Yankee, I’ve lived in the Southwest and the South for most of my life (I prefer the climate).
Everyone I hear down here who writes or speaks of the War calls it the “Civil War.” I am surprised that they don’t call it the “War Between the States,” “The War of Southern Independence,” or the “War of Northern Aggression.”
It could be that most of them are not very deep into American History.