“They died because they were forced to fight because the Dictator in Washington DC made them fight. Their options were prison or getting shot, so they fought.”
Complete and utter hog wash. Only 6% of the 2,100,000 men that served in the Union Army over the course of the war were drafted into that army. The rest volunteered.
Over the course of the war about 750,000 men served in the Confederate Army. About 10% were drafted. The rest volunteered.
So why were there riots in New York and Chicago? Also, who is giving us those stats, and are they telling the truth? I recall the incident that led to Lincoln threatening Taney with prison revolved around him using his power as a Judge to get a young man out of being drafted. He had been doing it, and it was raising the ire of the Military officers.
I've read how the Irish were dragooned off of the boats, and they were given a choice to "volunteer", or face immediate repercussions. I recall an incident in which Lincoln chastises some civic leaders in Chicago for trying to beg off of sending him more men. (6,000) and he tongue lashes them severely and tells them to send him those men.
What is the truth, and what is propaganda?
There is also the aspect that the Union Army was probably the single biggest source of jobs in the whole D@mned economy, and impoverished people will do what they must to earn money.
I do not doubt that many volunteered because they literally had no better choices. This still does not mean that they were gung ho for liberating the black man.
I think most of them didn't care. Do you believe most of them cared? Many come from states with laws that were quite oppressive to black people in their states. One would think they would reflect the environment from which they came.
I think both sides probably inflated the numbers of their "volunteers", because it makes them look better.