Mehmed Ali’s conscript army was held together only by coercion

Evidence

If that was the case, why then did these men continue to fight? If it is true that life in the camps was so intolerable, why did these thousands and thousands of men put up with it? The answer is that they did not. The soldiers fighting in Mehmed Ali’s army deserted when they were given the slightest opportunity. They fled from the camps71 and during marches. They escaped from military hospitals, from military ships, from military schools, and from military establishments. Not only soldiers, but NCOs also fled. More significantly the guards themselves fled78 and the elite regiments, the Guardia Regiments, that were created to catch deserters, among other things, were rampant with desertion themselves. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1344

Categorization

• QUESTION: How did such a desertion-riddled army still perform adequately in the Morea and other campaigns? Reader is asking about army performance.