"Nor did it stress the principles behind that government. In effect, the CSA was asking men to die for a planters 'right' to own slaves."
I thought Slavery wasn't a major issue of the war until midway through when that pesky Moral Majority [Northern Repub Abolistionists?] gained steam? Did I misunderstand that?
The secession movement really gained steam with Lincoln's election, which was seen in the South as the final rejection by the rest of the country to the idea of incorporating more states out west where slavery would be legal. Realizing this, and that the days of slavery were numbered, South Carolina started the move toward secession and was shortly thereafter joined by the rest of the Confederate states.
If state rights and other issues were in the cauldron over the fire, slavery was the fuel that kept it warm.