Final answer:
The statement that Lincoln announced the war was being fought to free the enslaved in the South from the outset is false; Lincoln's initial aim was preserving the Union, with emancipation becoming an explicit war aim later on.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that Lincoln announced the war was being fought to free those who were enslaved in the South at the outset of the war is false. Initially, President Abraham Lincoln's primary goal was to preserve the Union, and he emphasized this point early in the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation, which declared the freedom of slaves in the Confederacy, was not issued until January 1, 1863, nearly two years after the war began.
Thus, the objective of freeing the enslaved became explicitly linked to the war's aims only after this declaration.