The Hard Hand of War

Union Military Policy Toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865

The Hard Hand of War was published in 1995 by Cambridge University Press. I've copied the description of the book as it appears in their on-line catalog:

This volume fits into an emerging interpretation of the Civil War that questions its status as a "total war" and emphasizes instead the survival of political logic and control even in the midst of a sweeping struggle for the nation's future. Through comparisons with earlier European wars and through the testimony of Union soldiers and Southern civilians alike, he shows that Union soldiers exercised restraint even as they made war against the Confederate civilian population.

Contents: Introduction; 1. The roots of a policy; 2. Conciliation and its challenges; 3. Early occupations; 4. Conciliation abandoned; 5. War in earnest; 6. Emancipation: Touchstone of hard war; 7. From pragmatism to hard war; 8. The limits of hard war; 9. Gestures of mercy, pillars of fire

Of course, if you'd like someone's opinion of the book before buying it, check out the review by George C. Rable in H-Net Book Reviews Or see the review by Richard H. Sewell in Reviews in American History.

Incredibly enough, there's a song called "Hard Hand of War" by the group Eyes of Pandora.  It's actually pretty good.