it is still a civil war no matter what you call it.
A rose by any other name still has thorns.
The people of Atlanta Ga in 1864 didn’t think it was to “civil”.
Au contraire, mon frere. A civil war is fought within a country where two or more factions seek to gain control of the government of that country. With the War of Secession, the South was not at all interested in gaining control of the US government. They simply wanted to be left alone as they were promised they could in the event they no longer wanted to be part of the United States.
Calling this war a 'civil war' would be comparable to calling any war of independence a 'civil war'. The Commonwealth of Virginia sought peaceful independence from the constraints of the Washington-based central government. At no time did they seek to gain control of said government.