Are we still fighting the Civil War? It ended a century and a half ago, but America's bloodiest war still isn't behind us.

• Author: Potenza, Alessandra
• Position: NATIONAL

Almost 150 years after the end of the Civil War, supporters of the Union and the Confederacy are still battling it out in Florida. But today's fight isn't about slavery or secession--it's about a monument.

The skirmish recently broke out in Olustee, west of Jacksonville, when the Sons of Union Veterans asked officials to place an obelisk to honor Union troops in a state park where three other memorials honor Confederate soldiers. The park commemorates the Battle of Olustee--Florida's bloodiest Civil War battle--where nearly 2,000 Union and 1,000 Confederate troops were killed or wounded in 1864.

But opposition to the monument exploded: During a public hearing in December, a crowd heatedly denounced the proposal, rising to their feet and singing "Dixie," the Confederate anthem.

"There are some, apparently, who consider this to be a lengthy truce," says Charles Custer, a local whose ancestors fought on both sides of the war, "and believe that the war is still going on."

It's not just Florida. All over the U.S., hardly a month goes by without some new battle over the Confederate flag, a monument to a Confederate leader, or another symbol of the Old South (see map).

In Selma, Alabama, a fight over the statue of a Confederate general lasted 13 years--longer than the Civil War itself. In Memphis, Tennessee, last year, the city council's decision to rename three parks that honored the Confederacy--including its president, Jefferson Davis--spurred a rally by the Ku Klux Klan. And in December, debate flared in Jacksonville when a school district decided to rename a high school that commemorated Nathan B. Forrest, a Confederate general and the first leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Why do we keep fighting over the Civil War (1861-65), which claimed the lives of 620,000 Americans? One reason, historians say, is that the conflict is perceived very differently in different parts of the country. In the South, the memory of the war is entrenched in the local culture. Virtually every Southern town displays Confederate monuments and buildings named after Confederate icons--including at least 10 major U.S. Army bases and dozens of schools. At least 27 schools are named for Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and three for Jefferson Davis, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

Many Southerners take pride in the South's history, the Confederacy included: "In this country, we're allowed to venerate our heroes," says Todd...