[central_va]

If you’d asked a southern soldier if he was fighting to protect slavery, he’d probably have thought for a moment, scratched, spit some tobacco and said, “Well, yes, that too, I suppose.”

I disagree here. Lincoln said the war wasn't about slavery, up until early 1863 when he delivered his Emancipation Proclamation. So that question to the southern soldier wouldn't have made sense up until early 1863.

[dsc]

“Lincoln said the war wasn’t about slavery, up until early 1863 when he delivered his Emancipation Proclamation. So that question to the southern soldier wouldn’t have made sense up until early 1863.”

True, but truth is irrelevant to several posters to this thread.