[Ads-l] Early use of "civil war" to refer to the American one

[Joel S. Berson]

I don't know where this belongs, if anywhere.  It must be a very 
early use of "civil war" to refer to the American one, being just 11 
days after the firing on Fort Sumter.

It's not quite "American Civil War", for which it would antedate the 
OED3's 1861 Times 3 May (under "American").

For "civil war" (under "civil, adj., n., and adv."), the earliest 
quotation referring to the American one is 1941, suggesting that the 
OED3 was not at all interested in early instances.
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"Friday of last week will hereafter be set down as a dark day in our 
history---as the day in which the Civil War was begun.  It was the 
12th of April ...".

Vermont Chronicle, (Bellows Falls, VT) Tuesday, April 23, 1861; pg. 
66; Issue 17; col E. [Citing the N. Y. Evangelist.]

Joel  

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