Over the course of the war, men joined the military for a variety of motives, including adventure, duty, steady pay, draft notices, peers pressuring friends to enlist, and to protect slavery or abolish it. Many men also joined for a cause, whether it be to save the union or secure southern independence. Alonzo Ameli with 5th New York Infantry Regiment, also known as “Duryea’s Zouaves,” was one of many Northerners whose letters home expressed his great patriotism in fighting for liberty and union.