One thing that inspired Union enlistment was the amount of money given to the Union soldiers towards the end of the war compared to what Confederate soldiers got. I might have jumped ship too if I was tempted with that type of bounty. Make note this is what was being illegally offered to Irishmen and other Europeans by agents representing Abraham Lincoln, in Europe.

In 1864 the average bounty given for signing up for a Union soldier was authorized at $300 or or equilant to unskilled labor rates of today at $34,173.91 (according to money wage rates paid for common or unskilled labor from 1774 to the present).

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/compare/

For some veterans, on top of their regular pay their total bounties could total as much as $1100.00 or $125,304.35 using the unskilled wage computation for todays wages. In June 1864 the U.S. Congress set aside $177,462,728 for pay and bounties. That would equal $20,215,319,450 using the unskilled wage calculation.

In March of 1864 the Confederate government offered a bounty of one hundred dollars, in a six per cent government bond. The Governor of Mississipp was offering only $50 dollars for signing up. Not much incentive.

________________________
David Upton