You should read some of the contemporary letters and notes from Union troops during the Civil War to get an idea what they thought about “fighting to end slavery.” A perhaps surprisingly high number said that if the War was to free the slaves they wouldn’t be fighting it. The overwhelming number said they fought to preserve the Union. They were perfectly content to have slave states remain in the Union.
Think of it: If the War had been to end slavery then the Union troops would have attacked and crushed Delaware (a Northern slave state), Maryland and Kentucky (both neutral slave states). But they didn’t. So, the War could not have been to end slavery, could it?
The Deep South Slave-Power's declarations of secession, and forming a new Confederacy were all about protecting slavery against the perceived threat from "Ape" Lincoln and his "Black Republicans".
The Deep South provoked, started and formally declared war on the United States (May 6, 1861) in order to win support from Upper South slave states which until then had been unwilling to join their Confederacy.
The North accepted the Confederacy's war of aggression in order to preserve the Union, but at the same time used the war to destroy the root cause: slavery.
So, if you give it some thought it all makes sense.
” ....they FOLLOWED the directives and emancipation orders of their government, a government THEY ELECTED.”
Almost every state except for the Border States had outlawed slavery BY 1860. That does not mean that they loved the Negros Slaves but they thought it WRONG to enslave a fellow human being.
I have read letters of the soldiers and even the Abolitionist who lived among the Blacks became disenchanted.
Nevertheless, they, THE MILITARY, “FOLLOWED the directives and emancipation orders of their government....” all 330,000 OF THEM that died.