They fought for 1000 different reasons, of course. They volunteered (at first), and the vast majority were not slaveholders. A common reason was simply to repel the invaders of the north from their homeland. The North made the first move after all.
I'm from Iowa, have no skin in the game. But its simple demonizing to make blanket statements about the intentions of vast groups of people.
Whether or not they were slaveholders. The fundamental reason the South went to war was to preserve slavery. That many of the soldiers did not own slaves themselves does not clear the flag of its meaning.
Considering that the states were united until the south started to secede (again, because of slavery), I'm not sure how the war can be framed in any other way. The north can only be called invaders in the context of the secession.
The North still made the first move, by occupying the confederate fort and refusing to leave. This is middle school history, no need to hide the facts.
It was not a Confederate fort to begin with. It was a Federal fort, though construction hadn't yet finished on it at the time of that SC tried to secede. I'm not hiding any facts, you just had a bad middle school history teacher.
I'm from Iowa, have no skin in the game. But its simple demonizing to make blanket statements about the intentions of vast groups of people.