Regardless of your biased evaluation, your moronic denials, your laughable mythology and your use of terms that, technically, don't apply, the South did in fact secede, the Confederate States of America did in fact exist and, when reasonable people examine history, they conclude that the northrons illegally invaded and prosecuted an illegal war to subjugate a free and independent nation.
"When ten states of the former Confederacy refused to ratify, Congress declared that the states no longer existed and combined them into five “military districts” under martial law. The states were required to call elections for state constitutional conventions that would enfranchise black voters and disenfranchise white voters who had fought for the Confederacy. After these conventions created new state constitutions, after these constitutions were approved by Congress, after new state governments were set up, and after they ratified the amendment, only then would Congress end military rule and readmit the states to the Union.
There were two huge constitutional issues in Congress’ action. First, Lincoln had fought and won a war dedicated to the principle that the Union was permanent and indivisible. No state could secede, and no state could be expelled. Yet here Congress had made a mockery of the ostensible reason for which the war had been fought. Second, only a state could ratify an amendment, not a territory or a military district, something that was not even defined in the Constitution. Yet states were now required to ratify an amendment at the point of a gun even though the law that required them to do so said they were not legally states in the first place."
States’ Rights and the Union by Forrest McDonald
No, they weren’t free. Most of them were slaves.
Well if someone wants a lesson in moronic denials, laughable methodologies, or misapplication of terms then they need look no further than one of your own posts. The South rebelled, since their acts of secession was illegal. The confederate states was not recognized as a sovereign nation by any contemporary country on Earth so they basically existed only in their own mind. The North fought the armed rebellion that was forced upon them by the Davis regime to a successful completion. But calling it an 'illegal war' might well be valid since I'm not aware that Davis got his congresses approval to initiate it to begin with. So if you're misguided enough to believe that the confederacy was a sovereign nation, then the war was illegally launched. Not that Davis cared much on what his constitution said to begin with.