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Civil War, War of Southern Rebellion, War Between the States, War of Northern Aggression, call it what you will. From my standpoint it could easily be called the War of Southern Aggression since the first act of violence was the confederate firing on Sumter. Prior to that the general consensus up North was that the south was not worth fighting for. After Sumter the consensus was exactly the opposite. It doesn't change the fact that the single most important reason for the southern rebellion was defense of the institution of slavery.

The southern man on the street may not have owned a slave but he had a vested interest in keeping the institution of slavery. Slavery cemented his position in society. He may not have had much but he was a free man. Take away slavery and he has 4 million free blacks to contend with.

Could be, slavery was very ingrained in the south, but the question still remains, what did the average southerner think he was fighting for? Wasn't slavery begining to be a fading proposition in the South as well, with a growing number of freed slaves?

It's interesting that the North might have not put up a fuss if the South had left the union, but the South was demanding too much territory. The Northern and Southern cultures at the time were very different also, they had little in common. Kind of like how little in common the red, "fly over" areas have with the blue areas in the 2000 election.