Americans are not strangers to war. The United States was born of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783), which freed us from British rule. We fought the British again during the War of 1812 (1812-1815). The United States expanded its boundaries after engaging in the Mexican War (1846-1848), which ended not long before the Civil War (1861-1865).

Numerous "Indian wars" were fought on U.S. soil from long before the Revolutionary War to shortly after the Civil War. Relative peace reigned until the Spanish American War (1898). The 20th century gave us global conflicts in the form of World War I (1917-1918) and World War II (1941-1945). The U.S. then got bogged down in Asia in vicious wars in Korea (1950-1953) and Vietnam (1964-1972) before venturing into the desert sands of Iraq in the Gulf War (1990-1991).

But no war touched America like the Civil War. It was our only internal war, pitting American against American, brother against brother. It was our bloodiest war by far, with one out of every four soldiers killed or wounded. (The Mexican War had a similar casualty rate, but far fewer soldiers were involved.) The Civil War is recalled by countless memorials, traditions and symbols, including many state flags-not just in the South but in the North and west to Nevada. In fact, new states were created during the Civil War.

A Confusing War

The war between the states was also one of our most complex and confusing wars. Depending on who you talk to, it was a glorious event filled with gallantry and heroics or a circus act that saw incompetent and arrogant generals condemn soldiers to death suicidal assaults. The Civil War featured the last great cavalry battles-battles fought by men on horseback. Yet it also introduced armored warships, paving the way for the great naval battles and sneaky submarine warfare of the future. Though the North condemned slavery, it bought sugar from Hawaii, where workers were exploited in a manner similar to Southern plantations. The last shots were fired in the waters of what is now Alaska-after the war had officially ended.

Soldiers on both sides fought with gallantry, yet they also maintained shockingly inhumane prisoner of war camps that were omens of the Nazi death camps of World War II. Confederate thugs terrorized communities on the western frontier. The North responded with General William Tecumseh Sherman's "march to the sea," which cut a wide swath of destruction across the heart of the Confederacy. Freed slaves fought bravely for the North-yet were not treated with respect by white Union soldiers.

And the horrors of the war were recorded not just in thousands of diaries and newspapers, but by a new invention: the camera.

There's even controversy over the name of the war. Many nations have suffered through civil wars-wars fought internally rather than with other nations. But some Southerners point out that they seceded and created a new nation. Therefore, they argue, it was not an internal civil war fought between states but a war fought between two nations.

Many people believe the war was all about slavery. Yet other issues were more important to many who fought in the war, issues like state's rights and independence.

The Endless War

The irony continued after the war. Soldiers who helped liberate slaves later rode west, as the U.S. Army intensified its campaign against Native Americans. One of the greatest Civil War heroes, George Armstrong Custer, survived some of history's bloodiest battles, only to die at the hands of "savages" on the grasslands of distant Montana.

The Civil War certainly didn't eliminate racism. In fact, black Americans were denied many basic rights until the civil rights crusades of the 1960s, over a hundred years after the Civil War. Racism still remains a major problem in the 21st century. Then there are the battles being fought over state flags that recall the Civil War. Are they merely historic emblems, are they racist, or are they something else entirely? And is it fair for people from outside the South to criticize them when other state flags recall the war against Native Americans?

Even today, the Civil War remains, in many ways, more familiar than another confusing, but much more recent, conflict-the war in Vietnam. Yet the Civil War and the Vietnam War are alike in two important respects: The Vietnam War itself was a civil war (with other nations contributing soldiers and weapons). And both wars were terribly bloody yet left Americans living today relatively untouched. We're separated from Vietnam by the Pacific Ocean, from our own civil war by more than 150 years.

On second thought, Americans are indeed strangers to war. The only battles fought on U.S. soil since the Civil War were the last skirmishes with Native Americans and a few battles fought in Alaska and Hawaii during World War II. Thus, most Americans living today can't imagine what it's like to watch their loved ones killed, see their houses blown up or tremble at the sight of armored tanks and foreign soldiers marching down Main Street. In that respect, the Vietnamese-who suffered horrible casualties and saw their country reduced to ruins during their civil war-can better relate to the people who actually endured the war between the states.

The Personal War

Still, the Civil War has a magical ability to reach into the present and touch people. People still marvel at the astonishing similarities between the assassinations of President Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. Thousands of people reenact Civil War battles across America every year. Grown men reenacting the Battle of Gettysburg-the bloodiest engagement the Western Hemisphere has ever seen to this day-have broken down and wept.

One explanation for Civil War nostalgia may be the fact that it takes us back to a simpler era. Life was a lot harder in the middle of the 19th century-indeed, it was often unbearable for slaves and Native Americans. But for many people, life was also slower, leaving people more time to think and feel.

Though we cringe at the thought of all those bloody battles, it might be argued that today's more impersonal wars are worse. People who don't even know what they're fighting for can now kill thousands of people they don't know-and can't even see-merely by pushing a button. Most of the people who participated in the Civil War believed in whatever cause they were fighting for. They were passionate enough to sacrifice their lives, while many people nowadays are too apathetic to even vote.

Simplicity and passion are combined in Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, which remains one of the most powerful speeches ever delivered. Lincoln was right when he said the world would never forget that watershed battle, but he was wrong when he said, "The world will little note nor long remember what we say here..." We do note Lincoln's words; many people have even memorized the words that helped clinch Lincoln's reputation as the greatest of American presidents. He's one of four presidents whose faces are sculpted on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, a state farther removed from slavery than any state in 1850.

Yet George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who are also commemorated on Mt. Rushmore, owned slaves! And Lincoln is still widely hated in the South. The irony never ends.