After the last shot was fired, the United States was changed forever.  Up to now – 150 years ago – the United States had always been referred to in the plural as in The United States are not Europe; after the Civil War, the United States will be refereed to in the singular as in The United States is not Europe . In his first inaugural address, Lincoln used the word Union twenty times, he did not use the word Nation once. The Civil War made the Union a Nation.