It has been my impression that most Union soldiers fought to preserve the Union and freeing the slaves was of only minor importance to the majority.
I sincerely wish that Grant had been in a position to be promoted to General-In-Chief before Gettysburg and therefore would have been in a position to force Meade to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia before it could retreat south across the Potomac River into Virginia. That move would likely have shortened the American Civil War and saved tens of thousands of lives that were lost between July 1863 and June 1865. Grant had the killer instinct that the other Union Army commanders lacked.
