Very few slaves were freed as a result of the Eman[censored]tion Proclamation. The 13th amendment is what freed the slaves. If the states only seceded because of their rights, then how were their rights infringed upon? Probably what some people don't know is that while South Carolina was voting to leave the Union, a group of intelligent gentlemen were meeting in Richmond working on a way to avoid the war. The American Civil War is the last war of Chivalry, where the men cared for each other. Yes I believe that Lincoln used the Eman[censored]tion to keep foreign countries from aiding the south.

A letter from Robert E Lee on December 27, 1856 said this:
"There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil....Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others? "

Will you truly say that the war was over slavery? Why would a General Lee talk out against what he fought for? Slavery was not what the war was about.

Gettysburg was the turning point in the war, all the confederates had to do was get the north to leave them alone, just like we did against britan in the revolutionary war, and like now with the war in Afgahnistan. Though the war was about slavery it was also because the south was dependant on the slaves for cotton