'...war between opposing groups of citizens of the same country..."
Then there is no such thing as a war for independence? Mr. Williams has it right. He is the maverick's maverick.He is a Southern Black man that displays the Confederate Battle flag proudly in his office.
As Granny said of the War on the Beverly Hillbillies, "it was when the North invaded America".
Well then call it a rebellion then, don't try to paint it as something it wasn't. Dr. Williams, and others, try to make the case that Lincoln prevented legal actions on the part of the southerners. He didn't. And Dr. Williams is wrong in another area. The Civil War didn't settle the question of whether secession is legal, it settled the question as to whether unilateral secession is legal.
In a war for Indpendence, like that of 1775-1783, one does not need to resort to sophistic legal arguments. If the acts of the southern insurrectionists were revolutionary, you need no pretense that they were also legal.