[driveserve]

" Northerners fought not to free the slaves but because they were conscripted to preserve the Union."

Not so, my friend. Look in your history books & you'll see that most Federal soldiers volunteered for the fight. It wasn't until later in the war when things were going badly for the North that the draft was implemented. True, most did not fight for the slaves. But all fought to preserve the Union.

[jjmcgo]

See I'm Irish and I know that many recent immigrants were paid by conscripted Yankees to take their place in the Civil War. So, while I don't know all the details about who got drafted when, it is quite apparent that many Union soldiers and would-be soldiers were drafted and didn't want to fight to save the Union or free the Negroes. They fought because they had to or they paid someone else to fight for them.
Even if a majority of Union soldiers volunteered, as you say, that probably would not have been enough to win the war. The difference was involuntary conscription. Or do you disagree?