Yes, there were terrorists in the Civil War
The notorious Champ Ferguson

Champ Ferguson
PHOTO: Library of Congress
Many people seem to be under the impression that terrorism is a new thing, or that in the Civil War, fighting only took place in organized battles. Not true. There was plenty of terrorism in the Civil War, although the textbooks seem to prefer the phrase "guerilla warfare." Whatever you call it... there were many cases of unarmed people being shot, mutilated, and even tortured.

These terrible deeds were done by people who fought on both sides, and many of these murderers weren't so much fighting for one cause or the other as they were just using the war as an excuse to kill. One of the most notorious was Champ Ferguson. Originally from Clinton County, Kentucky, Ferguson was living in White County, Tennessee, when the war broke out. Much of the detail of his life is legendary, and therefore hard to prove, but during the Civil War he led a small group of cavalrymen who travelled the Cumberland Mountains, killing everyone who they could find who they heard was loyal to the Union. At one point, he and his men reportedly went into a military hospital and killed Union soldiers while they lay in their beds. On another occasion Ferguson visited the home of a man who had helped raise him and shot him in his home, because he too had (in Ferguson's opinion) Union sympathies.
The Harper's magazine sketch of Champ Ferguson with his prison guards
After the war, the U.S. Army executed only two Confederates for war crimes. One had been the head of the Andersonville prisoner of war camp. The other was Champ Ferguson, who was found guilty of murdering 53 people and hung at the prison then located in what is now downtown Nashville.

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