It's been said the South started the "War Between the States" by firing the first shots of the war at Ft. Sumter in Charleston Harbor. That action was labeled as "treasonous aggression" by the Lincoln administration. This Essay demonstrates Lincoln and the US Navy were the aggressors who provoked and initiated the war, for motives which had nothing to do with ending slavery. It has also been said the common Southern soldiers who didn't own slaves, were duped into fighting the "rich mans' war" on behalf of the wealthy plantation/slave owners. But the facts show it was actually the other way around. The facts contained in the following pages demonstrate the Northern soldiers were the ones who fought the "rich mans' war."