The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union and the Confederacy, which had been formed by states that had seceded from the Union.
Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a leading abolitionist
Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, author of the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854
Sen. John J. Crittenden, of the 1860 Crittenden Compromise
Ambrotype of two unidentified young boys, one in blue Union cap, one in gray Confederate cap (Liljenquist collection, Library of Congress)
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state .
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.
The term is a calque of Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.
Members of the Red Guards during the Finnish Civil War of 1918
The destruction wrought on Granollers after a raid by German aircraft on 31 May 1938 during the Spanish Civil War
Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, American Civil War, 1863
Tanks in the streets of Addis Ababa after rebels seized the capital during the Ethiopian Civil War (1991)