Union (American Civil War)

During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the United States, the northern states that did not secede. Since the term had been used prior to the war to refer to the entire United States (a "union of states"), using it to apply to the non-secessionist side carried a connotation of legitimacy as the continuation of the pre-existing political entity. Also, in the public dialogue of the United States, new states are "admitted to the Union" and the President's annual address to Congress and to the people is referred to as the "State of the Union" Address.

References

• Current, Richard N. Lincoln's Loyalists: Union Soldiers from the Confederacy. Oxford University Press, rpr. 1994. ISBN 0195084659.
• Mackey, Robert R. The UnCivil War: Irregular Warfare in the Upper South, 1861-1865. University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. ISBN 0806136243.