War loses a great deal of romance after a soldier is seen as first battle.

I have a more vivid recollection of the first than the last

one I was in. It is a classical maxim that it is sweet and becoming to die for one's country, but whoever has seen the horrors of a battlefield

feels that it is far sweeter to live for it.

Confederate Colonel John Mosby.

The War of Secession, War of the Rebellion,

The War of Northern Aggression,

The Late Unpleasness, Freedom War, the war between the states.

Though it seemed not everyone could agree on exactly what to call it, the one thing everyone could agree on was that the American Civil War was

a time of unrivaled darkness in the country's history.

Not even a century removed from the Revolutionary War.

The young nation found itself embroiled in debates of nationalism, economics, expansionism, and slavery.

As tempers flared over the hot button issues, a rift in national identity formed and eventually

tore the state states asunder.

As the southern half of the country formed its own government and eventually its own army to secure its independence,

the northern half gathered its sizable might to force the secessionist states back in line,

denying any attempt to fuck up the Union.

It would have been a real pain in the ass to make new flags for everyone. And the It's been called America's bloodiest war. Between 1861 and 1865, more Americans lost their lives in the Civil War than in any

other American conflict, which is a little misleading really, since in all other wars Americans were fighting soldiers from other

nations. But it remains an appollingly horrific example of human atrocity. More than

620,000 lives were lost, 2% of the country's population. If that doesn't lift your skirt, in terms

of present day numbers, the number of lives lost would be closer to 6 million. With so much

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