One Freeper astutely suggested that it would look a lot like the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s. Comparisons to the American Civil War are meaningless. Our "civil war" wasn't really a civil war at all. It was a secessionist movement, not a battle for control of our government and institutions.
Correct. What happened in Spain in the 30s or Russia in the 19-teens or Britain in the 1640s or Mexico in the 19-teens were actual civil wars. What happened in North America in the 1860s was no more a civil war than what happened in the 1770s-80s. In both cases one side simply sought independence. At no point did they have any desire to march in, depose the sitting government and install themselves in power over others. These were plainly wars of Independence.
I would disagree that the American civil war was not a civil war. It just so happened that there was a geographical separation. There were huge differences in the “folkways” of the people in each region. While there was a geographic separation, remember there were people on both sides that did not want a fight. Our friendly tyrant Lincoln setteled that little question, though. The previous all out conflict (our revolution - about 80 years prior) did not have the geographical separation to the same extent but clearly not everyone wanted a fight. Finally, our current era (about 80 years from the last major catastrophic event and about 160 years from the prior event - our civil war,j is set to have a catsrophic outcome just like the last three events which were about 80 years apart (about a human life span). It will not a turn out well.