It's called the Civil War because it was a war for civil rights.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

actually the term "civil war" is just a way of saying it was a war between two sides of the same country. ex., in the uk some people refer to what Americans think of as the "Revolutionary War" as the "Civil War. Civil rights didn't have anything to do with it, and the only reason Lincoln decided to free the slaves was to give the war a moral purpose so that his soldiers wouldn't give up.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

It's not just a description, but a clarification of the type of war.

by Anonymous 13 years ago