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the North did NOT attack the South with the intent of "freeing the slaves" and the South did NOT leave the Union in hopes of "keeping slaves"

While that is correct, the base line for the Civil War was the institution of slavery. Had it not been for slavery and the regular political struggles of the northern and southern states to resolve it's presence in the new states we would never have had a Civil War. You can twist this thing around every which way you want but the one passionate issue that drove the single most significant wedge between the north and south was slavery. Read any primary source material from the time and fight over slavery was the predominate issue. This common refrain that the Emancipation proclamation didn't free any slaves is a canard. It wasn't meant to free any slaves at the moment it was issued, it was meant to put the Civil War on a footing in which a victory by the North would end slavery once and for all. The fact is, the Emancipation Proclamation did end the institution of slavery once and for all, it just took a couple of years to enforce it.