Possible, though never tested, since Davis squashed and hushed up the only proposition of this type made by an army officer.
As you probably know, this was by Patrick Cleburne, one of the very best southern officers. Despite his competence and the desperate need of the CSA for high level officers, his career stalled after this incident. He died at Franklin.
It was reported that even the officers of the Army of the Tennessee did not support him in his proposition. The CSA Congress, as late as early 1865, when presumably even the most stupid congressmen were aware the situation was critical, had a great deal of difficulty bringing itself to emancipate even slaves recruited as soldiers.
I have long believed that if the CSA had really wanted independence as their primary goal, they could easily have had it. Emancipate the slaves in 1861,or even schedule very gradual emancipation, and Britain and France would have been delighted to recognize the South's independence and resume trade. If the US Navy attempted to interfere, the RN would have promptly sunk it, the US Navy being greatly inferior.
The problem was that this seemingly obvious solution was quite literally unthinkable to southern leaders. The reason they wanted independence was to protect and eventually expand the institution of slavery, so independence without slavery was meaningless and inconceivable.
It is possible you are right about the "common men" of the South, but it is well-documented that the more slaves a man owned in 1860/61, the more likely he was to favor secession. The ordinary men of the South fought primarily not to defend or expand slavery, as their betters did, but, quite justifiably, to repel an invasion of their home.
That invasion, of course, was precipitated by secession, which was initiated by and in the interests of wealthy slaveowners. No slavery, no secession, no invasion, no war.
You refuse to see. I cannot offer help you, you are trapped in a loop of reconstructed lies and misinformation.