The Great Southern Vampire Wars took place around the Civil War era. Mostly it consisted of various vampires who wanted large "herds" of humans to graze off of battling for control of densely populated areas by changing random people and using them as slave warriors until they outgrew their newborn strength, at which point they were killed. The GSVW eventually got so bad that the Volturi had to step in, though it is not known whether their intervention resulted in any actual action, or whether they simply had a short discussion and arrived at a diplomatic resolution.