Bill,

I believe WBTS is probably the "middle of the roaders" name for the Civil War. It falls in the area of "political correctness", doesn't everything these days.

Undoubtedly, "The Civil War" is the most common and best recognized name for this conflict. Their are many who argue with the term due to the definition, of such a conflict being an internal affair between different political, religious, cultural, etc. groups of the same country, rather than a war between sovereign nations.

I'm sure you've seen such terms as "The War of Northern Aggression", "The War for Southern Independence" and others. These are terms used by some Southerners who strongly feel allegiance to the former Confederacy and resent the assault on their ancestor's memory when it's neatly packaged in a "Slavery Bad", "South Bad", "proto-Nazi" view of Southern heritage.

My purpose in using the term "War Between the States" is meant to find a term both acceptable and recognizable for people on opposite extremes of their view of the war.

Honestly, when naming this message board I thought a great deal about calling it "The Texas in the War Between the States Message Board". The primary reason I used the term "Civil War" was to make the site more easily found by internet search engines and to have it listed on "main stream" sites in the proper category(ies).

Just my thoughts,

Jim

P>