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Thanks for saying that my ancestors were morons who had no idea what they were fighting for.

The fact that they had to go invade someone else ought to have been a clue, but Lincoln was locking up anyone who criticized or contradicted his claims, so people just generally shut up and obeyed.

Same thing with people they dragged off the boat and pressed into the army. It was made clear that they were expected to believe what they were told, and go fight and die in the South if necessary.

Gosh, I guess I need to thank you for exposing this fraud. I guess I'll go to the veterans cemetery and pull out all the American flags from the Civil War graves for shame at their utter stupidity and inability to understand the REAL reasons they fought and died. Thank you, O Wise and All-Seeing Diogenes!

Same thing with people they dragged off the boat and pressed into the army. It was made clear that they were expected to believe what they were told, and go fight and die in the South if necessary.

You do know that never happened, right? For one thing, you couldn't be drafted unless you were a citizen, and people just docking in America aren't citizens, even in 1863.

In fact, even the idea of putting a recruiting station at the immigration point was shut down, as a letter written to the Office of Commissioners of Emigration indicates:

"the opinion of the Commissioners was decidedly adverse to granting such a request, on the ground that it would be injurious to the country in interfering with emigration, as would be the case as soon as known in Europe; and would be confirmatory, to a certain extent, of the charges made in the British House of Commons, as well as in France and Germany, by rebel emissaries and sympathizers, that the armies were being filled by the forced enlistments of arriving emigrants. "

From that, it seems, the myth that poor deluded Irish were being impressed into the army straight off the boat seems to have been a bit of southern propaganda that, like all southern propaganda, finds a home in your "theories."

Now, that said, a fair number of Irishmen arriving in the United States did volunteer for the same reasons many young men have enlisted in armies throughout time--a job, an adventure, and all the rest.

You always want to lay this on Lincoln. What you keep forgetting is he was supported by the Republican lead congress. They passed laws and resolutions supporting his actions to suppress the rebellion.

The Republican party was founded, in part, on the destruction of slavery. It said so in their platforms of 1856 and 1860. No Republican (chase, seward) who won the nomination and the presidency would have just let the southern states go. Hell, President Buchanon, who was a pro-southern democratic, wouldn’t even let them go.