No War is Civil

Civility is a casualty before the first shot.

Just before dawn, 150 years ago today, the Civil War started with a single cannon shot which sailed over Charleston Harbor and exploded above the federal garrison at Fort Sumter, setting the stage for four years of carnage that cost more than 600,000 American lives.

Currier & Ives lithograph of the 1861 bombardment of Fort Sumter, in South Carolina's Charleston Harbor, from the Library of Congress.

You can hear arguments about the name still echoing through the former Confederate States, where some still seriously contend our bloodiest war wasn't really about slavery... America's original sin.

Adam Goodheart’s new book is “1861: The Civil War Awakening.”

Did the Conflict Ever End? Audio Embed: BBC, PRI & WBUR's Here & Now 4/11/11. Host: Deborah Becker.

The New York Times series: Disunion- the Civil War’s unfolding.

Ken Burns' treatment of The Civil War repeated on PBS last week.