It is funny how the ignorant of today believe they understand the mentality that existed up to the civil war.  As always, liberals rewrite history to be of their liking and consistent with the present day agenda.  Those who PROCLAIM that the civil war was just about slavery need to stop and think for a bit about the soldiers.  Hundreds of thousands of southerners died for their "country."  Most of these soldiers were not slaveowners and most were not conscripted.  These men fought and died for liberty as they perceived it.  Modern arm chair liberals might think that these soldiers could not know liberty because of the slavery in their midst, but humans are exceptional at contradiction.  My bet is the typical southern soldier would say he was fighting because those da** Yankees wanted to tell him what to do.