Actually...blacks DID serve in the Confederate forces...true, mostly as militia units, starting in 1861.  Henry Louis Gates, of obama's "the police acted stupidly"fame, spent three years searching for black union troops who fought at Gettysburg.  He found none.  The ONLY black known to have fought AT Gettysburg is one Charles F. Lutz, a private in Company F, 8th Regiment, Louisana Infantry (a Confederate unit.)  We DO know he lost an arm while attacking Cemetery Hill, and that he survived the war.  FREE blacks fought for the union as well, but not until after the EP, in 1863.  the EP, did NOT free the slaves in the northern states that still allowed slavery. (which is kind of ballsy of Lincoln, free slaves in another country, but not his own!  Secession did not violate the Constitution, and whatever the reason, states had that right. Lincoln wrote in strong favor of secession for Texas from Mexico!  States were STILL more important than the National government back then.