I question the first 3 because they were fighting primarily on foreign soil
Only in the minds of the self style nation of the rebels, no one else recognized that claim. Why do you accept the notions of the rebels uncritically
fighting to defend democracy" is laughable.
Why is that? The bedrock of democracy is accepting the result of elections which the rebels did not do deliberately. A bedrock of civilization is accepting the will of the majority which the rebels did not do. A bedrock of civilization is accepting the rule of law and order which the rebels did not do. Why do you support a 'slaveholding oligarchy' over law
muse.jhu.edu
As respected historian Gary W. Gallagher spells out plainly in the opening sentence of the introduction to this volume, "the loyal American citizenry fought a war for union that also killed slavery" (7). In the two hundred pages that follow, he provides a valuable reminder that although the Civil War was caused by slavery and decided the fate of that peculiar institution, the preservation of the Union remained the foremost motivating factor in the minds of the majority of its northern participants. To the people of the northern states, the Civil War was, above all else, the struggle of a free people, waging war by means of its own citizen-soldiers, to defend its self-governing republic against the attack of a slaveholding oligarchy. In so doing, northerners believed they had preserved not only their own republic for their posterity but also the principle of republican government for the entire world to emulate. The destruction of slavery was, for most northerners, an unregretted side effect.
The average Northern soldier wasn't defending his state or country like a CSA soldier was.
Yes! He was defending his country! The self-styled country the rebels fought for, under the threat of hanging as you have observed, was a country only in the minds of the 'slaveholding oligarchy'. Some 200,000 Southerners, almost 20% of the maximum mobilization of the rebels fought for Union and thus their States.
. And most CSA soldiers really DID have pride in their cause and extreme devotion to their leadership ie Lee/Jackson erc.
True, but all bands of brothers, comrades in arms forged in combat have that esprit de corps. Often for a more noble cause the enslavement of human beings.
Remember the rebels shot those deserted, another good reason to stay in the ranks and live to be a POW.