[wideawake]

When the South wouldn’t roll over and play dead and the Irish conscripts were running low

Lincoln never expected the Confederate interests to "roll over and play dead" - he expected a fierce fight, unlike some Northern journalists.

The Union armies had many Irish volunteers and not very many Irish conscripts - as the draft riots proved, conscription was not a very reliable source of manpower.

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued largely to prevent the United Kingdom from assisting the Confederacy.

The first experimental black regiments were not even formed in the Union until months after the Proclamation, and they did not add significant manpower to the Union forces.

[central_va]

Face it, Mr. Lincoln’s war was very unpopular throughout the conflict until the fall of Atlanta. Then things flipped, the war became somewhat popular in the North and the once wildly popular war became decidedly unpopular below the Mason-Dixon.

[donmeaker]

One Louisiana unit of African heritage was raised by the Confederates, but far from being disbanded when the Union chased out the rebels, rather continued in existance, and served under the Union.