Replies

DiogenesLamp: "You keep wanting to focus on the quantity and status of black troops in both armies."

Just hoping to stay on-topic -- note the thread is titled "Blacks and the Confederacy" so I think it important to compare & contrast those with blacks in the Union Army.

DiogenesLamp: "The most significant thing Walter Williams said was that the war was not fought to end slavery.
How about you respond to that particular point?"

A lot of ridiculous plays on words and obfuscations of meanings.

Clearly and unequivocally, defending slavery was the major, indeed sole important reason for Deep South declarations of secession, from December 20, 1860 through February 1, 1861.
Several compromise proposals came out of Congress in the months before war, all guaranteeing slavery's protection, all ignored by the Confederacy.
Slavery itself had nothing to do with Confederate provocations of war, military assault on Fort Sumter (April 12, 1860), declaration of war (May 6, 1861) or sending military aid to pro-Confederates fighting in Union Missouri.
Slavery only became an issue during the war when "contraband" -- runaway slaves arriving in Union Army controlled areas -- came to be seen as a way for doing serious damage to the Confederate cause.
That resulted in a series of Union declarations leading eventually to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1863) and the 13th Amendment (1865), abolishing slavery.
Throughout the Civil War, the Confederate leaders refused -- even at the very end -- to discuss any peace terms which included freedom for slaves.

SO, while it's not so accurate to say the Union first fought to abolish slavery, it is certainly accurate to say Confederate leaders fought to the bitter end to preserve it.