The US civil war remains the most deadly war in that country's history, having caused the death of over 600,000 soldiers on both sides. Only one person was clearly guilty of a war crime during this war and executed for it. He was a european, Henry Wirz, who was born in Zurich and enlisted in the confederate army. He was put in charge of the notorious Andersonville prison, where thousands of union prisoners died as a result of disease, exposure, and starvation.
After the war, he was tried by a military commission, and sentenced to hang. He argued that he was only following orders.
Wirz's history and actions seems to have presaged similar but worse events in the next century.
I have visited this Andersonville Prison many times, learned about the gang that was put on trial (I believe they were called "The Raiders") in the prison and how terrible the conditions were at this prison. Their lawyer argued that the gang was only doing what was necessary for self preservation, but the court martial, conducted by the Union soldier prisoners decided that they should hang. The Confederacy provided them with the wood and hanging ropes.
In my view, the execution and trial of the warden of this military prison was completely un-necessary. The person who ran this prison was made into a scapegoat for things he had no control over, so they hung him to appease the family of union soldiers who died there and those who survived. The hanging was all about appeasing political pressure and little to do with truth or justice.
Killing in the context of a war is not murder, but I agree with your general sentiment.
Murder is murder and killing in the context of war doesn't take away this fact. But I also agree with the general sentiment. What was it, Timothy McVeigh who said, that government teaches be example.
No, there are legitimate and legal forms of killing - the execution of criminals by the properly appointed authorities, the killing of enemy combatants in war, and so on. And as a Marxist, I have to say that I regard the killing of class enemies in a revolution as a legitimate form of killing. No revolutionary can be a pacifist.
But in the end, Lenin and Stalin lost and Gandhi won.