I understand most of your points but this I do not agree with:

" IF indeed, emancipating the slaves were the real reason the Union fought the war, seems like they forgot their priority and took quite a while to get around to it after the end of the war. "

The "real" reason for the North to go to War was not emancipation, and never proclaimed it was, it was Union, and emancipation was a military expedience to achieve the military goal of Union, thus emancipation, during the war years was partial, and not the priority, until it became a political issue again much later.

I am only saying in my posts, that:

" IF indeed, securing Independence was the real reason the South fought the War, seems like they forgot their priority and were mostly unwilling to do the hardest choices that their ablest military commanders asked of them, and they took quite awhile to get around to them until far too late to be any help in achieving the stated goal."

If a husband said his wife was his top proirity, and then just dropped her off at the hospital entrance when she was in labor and went golfing and bar-hopping with his buddies for two days until it was time for her and the baby to come home, you might just question his priorities, and not just take him as his word, no matter how much he "declared" what was most important to him.

If a new wife gets an emergency call that her wealthy husband was found severely injured in some type of stabbing or shooting accident at home and would be in emergency surgery in critical condition, and she took advantage of his time away from home to go powershopping and hitting the casinos and the Chippendale clubs with her girlfriends from the office, the local police just might not say, "well everyone at her wedding says she adamently declared that her husband was her number one priority when they got married, we take her at her word."