Experiment 625 Activated

I think a major problem with the way we learn about the Civil War is that it unwittingly paves the way for misconceptions and misinterpretations of the conflict between the North and the South, and that allows us as laypeople to undermine the gravity therein.

The most notable example being the fact that we call it the "Civil" War. Civil wars are defined as wars "between organized groups within the same state or country." In other words, for the American Civil War to actually qualify as a civil war, it would have had to been a conflict between two groups within the United States of America.

And if you've made it this far into the text you're probably thinking to yourself, "Uh yeah, Rubén, everybody knows that." But what a lot of people fail to remember is that the two opposing groups in this war were NOT within the same country.

By the time the war began, 7 of the 13 states that made up the Confederacy had officially seceded from the United States of America, meaning that they denied any affiliation with the US, and instead established themselves as the Confederate States of America. And while the Confederacy was never officially recognized as a sovereign nation, its population was no longer that of United States citizens. These were foreigners who rejected our laws and our ideals and instead sought to impose their own for better or for worse.

This was not a just a skirmish or an instance of rivalry or rebellion. This was an act of perfidy and treason against the United States that resulted in the deaths of approximately 620,000 people.

Following the events of the war, President Lincoln would go on to refer to Confederates as "Americans in rebellion", but that doesn't change the fact that he and President Johnson after him still had to issue pardons and amnesty to tens of thousands of former Confederate soldiers and reinstate their citizenship. You know, because they committed crimes. Like treason.

To call this a "civil" war is a misrepresentation of what the Confederacy actually was in relation to the United States. Therefore, from this point forward I will be referring to the topic at hand as the "Confederate War," and I encourage all of you to do the same.

(TL;DR: Confederates were not US citizens, so calling the Civil War by that name is misleading. We should refer to it as the Confederate War.)

The American Civil War is called the “American Civil War” because it was fought between two groups within the United States of America: the Federal Government and the collection of states that called themselves the “Confederate States of America”. The Confederacy, despite their declarations of secession, was always part of the United States of America in so far as the Federal Government was concerned. Confederate soldiers and politicians were pardoned for their crimes, as in they were ultimately not convicted for treason.

By claiming that the Confederates were no longer American citizens, you inadvertently give credibility to the notion that the South’s secession was legitimate and that they were indeed a sovereign nation, whether it was your intent to do so or not. The Confederates absolutely were American citizens because their rebellion failed.

Also your alternative of calling it “The Confederate War” places too much emphasis on the Confederacy and can easily be adopted by Lost Causers. What’s there to prevent Neo-Confederates from co-opting the name “The Confederate War” for their beliefs? Honestly, not much. If anything, that name lends itself to the South’s cause due to the focus on the Confederacy.

Source: https://www.instagram.com/finuccinialfredo/

“i guess none of you like me” could be better phrased as “i feel unloved right now”

“but nobody cares anyway” could be better phrased as “i feel insignificant and i need reassurance”