Conscript soldiers fought chiefly because desertion was impossible and retreat risked court martial

Evidence

In that sense Mehmed Ali’s soldiers, like all soldiers facing any battle, were caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. Before the tense few hours of battle they were confronted with the prospect of meeting the enemy with all the feelings of fear and horror that fighting entailed. Behind them were the memories of home, of fields left unattended, of deserted families, of wives and loved ones abandoned, left to their luck. Leaving the battle scene to return home was impossible since guards and sentries were always looking over them. When the battle started the tension heightened: to do nothing and to stay still or to fall back to the relative security of the reserve lines was always risky, since this carried with it the certainty of being court martialled. Being trapped in this manner, the soldiers had nothing better to do than obey the orders issued to them in the form of command signals and shouts from their officers. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1103

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A structural analysis of conscript coercion — discipline, not patriotism, made the army fight — that reframes how to read Egyptian battlefield performance.
• ADDENDUM: Directly speaks to the reader’s question about army performance: motivation was negative (fear of punishment), not positive or ideological.