Very few civilians were deliberately killed by either side in the civil war.
I am sorry but you are mistaken. During our Civil War, Grant introduced as express policy the concept of Total War against the South. He argued at the time that killing southern civilians either directly though firepower or indirectly though starvation was the most humane way to end the war. This is very clearly discussed in Sherman’s letters and his own inner conflicts with this policy.
“Very few civilians were deliberately killed by either side in the civil war.”
During the Civil War, when the Federal troops came in and declared marital law, the death penalty was handed out generously, to civilians. For example, they would proclaim that helping Confederate troops was punishable by death. So, at night, some Feds would ride up to a house and tell the inhabitants they were Confederates and needed food. If they were supplied food, the men were taken out and executed. The South was completely destroyed by Federal troops. No one knows how many thousands of civilians were murdered. “Beast Butler” of New Orleans was a good example of the type of military dictatorships that ruled.