Which Chapters Are War Chapters?

I, and the rest of Mormon culture, sometimes use the term "the war chapters" to refer to a set of chapters in the Book of Mormon that focus on a particular war. However, it's not really clear where the war chapters begin or which chapters are meant to be included.

I typically think of the war chapters as beginning with Alma 43, in which we're introduced to Captain Moroni and we see what was probably his first battle as chief captain of the army of the Nephites. However, the first few battles of this war actually happened several chapters before that.

In Alma 28, we're told that "there was a tremendous battle; yea, even such an one as never had been known among all the people in the land from the time Lehi left Jerusalem." And before that, in chapter 27, a group of Lamanites led by dissenting Nephites attacked a group of Lamanites who had converted and had practically become Nephites. That same group of attacking Lamanites had just had "many battles" with the official Nephites in chapter 25, and they had killed over a thousand of the converted Lamanites in the chapter before that.

As far as I can tell, the first battle of the war of the war chapters was in Alma 24. That's where this series of aggressions first came to bloodshed. However, not all of the chapters between Alma 24 and Alma 43 talk about or even include any mentions of  this war. Specifically, I wouldn't include Alma 26 or 29-42 in the war chapters, even though Alma 35 at least talks about the war, and I wouldn't really call Alma 45 a war chapter, either, even though it falls immediately after the war chapters had clearly begun.

I'm not sure if there's any real consensus on which of the chapters in Alma are considered war chapters and which ones aren't. Thankfully, I'm not so sure it matters. Yes, it would be nice to have a clear idea which chapters are war chapters, so when someone uses the term "war chapters," we'd all know exactly which chapters they meant, but that isn't necessary. We all know approximately which chapters are war chapters, and while a certain chapter's inclusion in or exclusion from the war chapters may be debatable, I think it's far more important to consider what those chapters can teach us than whether or not they belong within this particular set of chapters.

So, whether they can properly be called war chapters or not, I'm going to focus a bit on the chapters in the mid-to-late-twenties in the book of Alma, to see what I can learn from them. They may not officially be part of the war chapters, but they do have wars in them, and I'm sure I can learn something from those battles, just as I can learn from the battles in the official war chapters, whichever chapters those are.