Quote Originally Posted by Sarmatian View Post
Well, in that case, any people, not officially belonging to an army, who ever took up arms against anything are just civilians. One could say that terrorists are just civilians who took up arms to fight against, what they perceive to be, an oppressive regime.
The difference is of course in the outcome. The American Patriots in the Revolution would have been described in the same dismissive terms if they'd lost to the British as history is written by the victors: the American Civil War doesn't like to focus unduly that the Southern States were merely trying to be left alone until were invaded by the North.

"Officially" - what is that? Whose officials? If you refuse to recognise the other side every soldier is then by definition merely a civilian wearing a funny suit and carrying a gun.