I guess the shelling of Fort Sumter is just a myth.

It was the stupidest war ever fought by anyone anywhere. Many southern states promised referendums, but instead they held conventions with hand-picked radicals to draft the articles of secession. Southern men who had no horse in that race were led to slaughter by a landed gentry hell-bent on their own destruction.

The one main goal of the war was to preserve slavery, but starting the war was actually the only way to destroy slavery, as the reconstructed south was unable to prevent the constitutional amendment. Had they stayed in the Union slavery would have continued legally well into the 20th century.