Americans still divided about which side
they would have supported during War

One thing about the Civil War appears to be unchanged. Americans continue to be divided about which side they would have supported.

According to a recent survey by YouGov, an international opinion polling firm, slightly more than half of U.S. residents say would have been on the Union side during the Civil War.

Results, recorded in late November, show that 20 percent aren’t sure which side they would favor and another 17 percent indicate they would have tried to avoid taking sides.  Along party lines, Republicans were most sympathetic to the South with 20 percent relating they would side with the Confederacy.

The poll, tied to the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, asked a number of questions about the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln.

Members of both major parties were eager to claim Lincoln, the first Republican president. Only 23 percent of those surveyed said Lincoln would be a member of the present-day Republican Party, but that included 55 percent of the Republicans surveyed while only seven percent of Democrats said he would be in the GOP.

Just under one-third of the total group said Lincoln would be a Democrat while many said either he would be an independent or were unsure.

Lincoln skillfully opposed the expansion of slavery during his 1860 campaign. After the South seceded from the Union, the president excised unprecedented war powers including the arrest and detention without trial of thousands of suspected secessionists.  He also successfully prevented British recognition of the Confederacy.

Forty-two percent of respondents said states rights were the reason for the Civil War while 40 percent said it was slavery. More than half of Democrats – 54 percent – said slavery was the cause of the war compared with 34 percent of Republicans.