Despite the inclination to characterize armed conflict as confrontations between nations, tribes, or some political or social units, war at its basic level has always been about soldiers. Between 1861 and 1865, young Americans made the transformation from civilian to soldier, and over the course of the Civil War the soldiers took their place in the long human tradition of military service. While military contemporaries questioned the professionalism of the Civil War soldier, particularly in comparison to the standing armies of Europe, it soon became apparent to all that these "amateurs" could fight effectively. Social historians have attributed the bravery of Civil War soldiers to strong feelings of community or family ties. The nonmilitary explanations for combat performance suffered from a definition that divided the concept of a fighter from that of a soldier as if the two somehow existed separately.