Even at that time, the intentional killing of civilians is what I am referring to as war crimes. The soldiers of the Civil War would certainly have understood this type of killing as being a war crime, although I doubt that they would have used that exact language. They would have considered such killings “dishonorable” or something along those lines, but the point is the same.
Given that, I conceded your point that such crimes were not widespread. I would certainly not want to hold ALL the participants responsible for war crimes. There were in fact two men executed for war crimes after the war - you forgot about the commander of Andersonville Prison Camp, Henry Wirz. Nonetheless, war crimes were committed that were not punished. The winners of wars very rarely are held accountable for war crimes, so I suspect that there is very little chance that anyone in the Union army would have been prosecuted. As for Confederates, I think that Lincoln’s attitude was to allow the South to rejoin the Union on easy terms and put the whole thing behind us. Certainly, widespread prosecution of people involved in war crimes would have been contrary to that goal. Only the most egregious offenders were prosecuted, therefore. That does not mean that others were not guilty of war crimes.
Even given that, you have given one example of a person prosecuted for war crimes and I gave you another. That proves my point - war crimes were indeed committed during the Civil War. Does the fact that widespread commission of war crimes did not occur really mitigate the responsibility of those few individuals who did commit war crimes? I think not.
No, but remember this thread relates to Lost-Causer claims that the entire Union army, especially its pathological war-criminal leader -- General Sherman -- should have been hanged, no hanging was too good for them.
No, they should have been tarred & feathered, then burned at the stake, because that's what they deserved.
You don't believe me?
Just ask some of the other posters here...
My point on this -- there's no contemporary evidence they were considered "war criminals", and proof-positive of that is: no Confederate leader who committed similar "crimes" as Sherman was ever charged or punished for it after the war.
Further, the theory of "total war" first developed in the 1860s was used again by President Roosevelt during the 1940s to defeat our most dangerous global enemies, and turn them into our closest allies.
Think about that, FRiend...