[Svartalfiar]

I think we are playing word games....

Ish.
A civil war is fought between competing internal factions over control of the government. As if Repubs and Dems starting whacking each other over who wins the election.

Wars of secession aren't civil wars in that one faction generally isn't trying to take over government, they are perfectly content with the current government remaining where it is, they just want to get out from under it. The 'Revolutionary War', we just left England. We didn't try to attack England and take over everything, England invaded in order to prevent us leaving.
Likewise, in the "Civil War", the South wasn't trying to take over the North, we just wanted to leave and be left along. The North, like England before, had to invade in order to force the secessionists to remain under their political control.

[Svartalfiar]

I found an article years ago that explained it pretty well, between quite a few types of conflicts, but it’s probably buried in hundreds of bookmarks somewhere. I’ll repost it if I find it and it’s still up.