The (American) Civil War was fought between the Union (the United States, often called “the North”) and the Confederacy (the Confederate States of America, often called “the South”).

Quick Scoop: Who was the Civil War between?

In the context of U.S. history, when people say “the Civil War,” they almost always mean the American Civil War of 1861–1865.

This war broke out after a group of Southern slaveholding states seceded from the United States and formed their own government.

The Two Sides

  • Union (the North) – The existing United States government that opposed secession and fought to preserve the Union.
  • Confederacy (the South) – Eleven Southern states that left the United States and created the Confederate States of America.

In simple terms:

The Civil War was between the Northern states that stayed in the United States and the Southern states that broke away to form the Confederacy.

Why they fought (very briefly)

  • Southern leaders seceded mainly to protect and expand slavery, which they felt was threatened by Northern politics and Abraham Lincoln’s election.
  • The North fought first to keep the country together, and over time also to end slavery.

One-line answer

The American Civil War was fought between the United States (the Union, or North) and the Confederate States of America (the Confederacy, or South).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.