The words that you mention, north, south, union, confederacy -- none of these is ever used in the text. Neither are the names of Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant or Abraham Lincoln.
The first really good clue that this book is about the Civil War is that its subtitle is "An Episode of the American Civil War."
Other than that, there are clues. In the first chapter, we learn that the protagonist sees enemy sentries. The book says the enemy sometimes shot at the "blue pickets" and blue was a color associated with Union uniforms. Some of the pickets also talk to him and call him "Yank." They speak with a southern drawl:
"Yank," the other had informed him, "yer a right dum good feller."
A little later, we are told that the cavalry was all out of camp and that
They're going to Richmond, or some place, while we fight all the Johnnies.
Richmond is the Confederate capital and southerners were sometimes called "Johnny Reb."
Those are pretty good clues that the story takes place during the Civil War.
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