The official name used by the war department was the war of the rebellion. This I believe is most accurate. The United States had an election according to the constitution. There was no accusations of fraud or tampering in this election. Some southern states did not like the outcome of the election and decided to rebel by breaking away and forming their own country. So the democrats of 1860 said “not my president” just like the democrats of today like to do.
A rebellion is when on side tried to take over the country. The South just wanted to leave and start their own country.
Lincoln was a brilliant man and the South would have fared much better had he lived but he was also a Marxist and would have probably formed the world’s first Communist nation. He had enough radical Republicans in his ranks to do it too.
When Lincoln won the election, Karl Marx immediately wrote him a letter of support. When American Communists, joined with those in Spain fighting in the Spanish revolution, they pointedly called themselves the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. They knew what they were doing.
“Some southern states did not like the outcome of the election and decided to rebel by breaking away and forming their own country.”
Then there was the issue of wealthy northern industrialists funding terrorist operations against the south and northern governors granting sanctuaries to the terrorists.
Under the covenants of the U.S. constitution (Article IV), states were/are obligated to honor extradition requests. Northern states would not and that was one reason the south wanted to peacefully separate from the covenant breakers.
“The official name used by the war department was the war of the rebellion.”
I just call it ‘unfinished business’.