I could go into a long historical rant (and I probably will), since I focus more on the political history of the Civil War than I do the military aspects....But alas, people on both sides would get butthurt. The major issue is that the ACW is played out to be a tale of morality, instead of a complex period in US in which both sides were idiots. I'm going mostly limit this to the South, because the North had it's own issues that'd make this post 15 pages long.
A lot of misconceptions about the Civil War in modern "
public memory" can be traced back to what's called the
Lost Cause. Following the failures of Reconstruction in the South in the 1870s, people wanted to explain reasons for why the War happened. Since no one wanted to deal with the free slave issue any longer, slavery was removed and replaced with a nostalgic view of a past that never was. Before the war, slavery was the big topic issue of morality (That's why Kansas had a civil war of it's own in the 1850s, that's just how powerful it was of an issue). And from the 1880s to 1970s it was viewed as fact.
Post Reconstruction, the CS flag fades into nostaglic memory only to be seen at veteran circles and graves. It's not until 1915 with a the film "
The Birth of Nation," in which the first KKK (many former CS soldiers) is portrayed as being heroic and charlvious, does the CS battleflag starts making a strong comeback. Then "Gone With the Wind" further expands Lost Cause POVs in the 1930s. Following WW2, you have it making a full comeback into the mainstream.
It's then with the 100th anniversary of the Civil War, which also happened to be the same time of the Civil Rights Movement that the flag is being used as a symbol of resistance. A reactionary resistance to a major social change. It's then following the passage of the Civil Rights Act that you see people starting to say "heritage not hate." Sadly, it's not that hard to see the biggest pushers of the early agenda were members of groups like the
League of the South (a Southern Nationalist group).
"There were numerous causes for secession, but preservation of slavery was easily the most important of them. The confusion may come from blending the causes of secession with the causes of the war – which are separate but related issues. (Lincoln did not enter a military conflict to free the slaves but to put down a rebellion.)" No matter how hard you spin it, all you have to do is read period documents to know that the Confederate government was typical 19th century nationalist and followed the standard views that Anglo-Saxon Protestants were God's greatest invention since the wheel.
Another thing, the south was hardly as unified as the Modern South likes to remember. CS state governors often ignored the requests of Jefferson Davis and said that the capitol in Richmond was worse than DC. They also refused to grant each other's state armies much needed supplies. For example North Carolina was fairly self-sufficient and had surplus uniforms in stock. The governor of Georgia asked for some, and the governor of NC said "no, they are for my boys only!"
As for the Confederate enlisted men, there reasons for enlisting are more complex. Less black and white, if you will. You could say they were defending their homes from a perceived invasion, for adventure, etc. Many did defend slavery, because there was fear amongst farmers that freed blacks would take away jobs because they'd be cheap labor. The biggest amount of time that actual secessionists enlisted was in 1861. When their year long enlistments were up, the CS introduced the first draft in North American history, anyone from the ages of 18 to 45 were forced into service (later that was changed to 16 to 65). As well, the South was hardly as unified as modern Southerner like to believe. In general, those from the urban areas were more likely to be pro-secession, while rural areas weren't. For example, people tend to view Texas as a very solid CS state; however, entire German distinctions remained strong Unionist. There were anti-Confederate strongholds in the coastal regions of the Carolinas, Appalachia, and a few other regions. However, many of these men are forced into the CS Army. Add these factors into account and you'll find that as the war drags on, desertion rates are very high.
People also stress the CS was all about freeeeeedom from the government. Eh, they weren't so big on maintaining what we'd consider basic civil rights. In many ways, to live in the Confederate States at this time, you were less free than than in the US. You had to get passports just to pass from town to town, and have permission. Add in armed bands of Home Guard that acted like vigilantes against Unionists or men that went AWOL and you have a police state.
Tldr; people really do need to learn their history. Nostalgic history is bad and dumbs things down.