Princeton's WordNet(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition: 1  fauna, zoology(noun) all the animal life in a particular region or period. the fauna of China; the zoology of the Pliocene epoch. 2  zoology, zoological science(noun) the branch of biology that studies animals.
The American Civil War, widely known in the United States as simply the Civil War as well as other sectional names, was a civil war fought from 1861 to 1865 to determine the survival of the Union or independence for the Confederacy.
Aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg, American Civil War, 1863. A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same state or country, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly united state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region or to change government policies. The term is a calque of the Latin bellum civile which was used to refer to the various civil wars of the Roman Republic in the 1st century BC.