Why not let them speak for themselves?
“This is my country as much as the man that was born on the soil and so it is to every man who comes to this country and becomes a citizen…I have as much interest in the maintenance of the government and laws and integrity of the nation as any other man… This war, with all its evils, with all its errors and mismanagement is a war in which the people of all nations have a vital interest. This is the first test of a modern free government in the act of sustaining itself against internal enemies and matured rebellion. All men who love free government and equal laws are watching the crisis to see if a republic can sustain itself in such a case. If it fail then the hope of millions fail and the designs and wishes of all tyrants will succeed…There is yet something in this land worth fighting for.” - "Irish Green and Union Blue; Civil War Letters of Peter Welsh"
You don't force people who are fleeing starvation to go fight in a war they had no personal interest in just because you have the power to do so.
And when the Confederacy began conscripting free blacks and slaves at the end of the war, what personal interest did they have in the war?
Well that's the opinion of one, now i'll patiently wait while you put the other hundred thousand or so forceably drafted Irish opinions up for comparison.
And when the Confederacy began conscripting free blacks and slaves at the end of the war, what personal interest did they have in the war?
I think you are trying to put forth a "Well *THEY* did it too! " argument. (Known as a tu quoque.)
So you think evil by the South justifies evil by the North? That explains a lot. I guess evil is okay so long as the people you support are doing it/did it.