6. The Confederate States were the first to institute a draft during the Civil War
In early 1862 the Confederate States of America, recognizing the considerably smaller population within its domains, acted to make military service compulsory for able-bodied males between the ages of 18 to 35. Initially the term of service was for three years, and it was permissible to hire a substitute to evade the requirement to serve. Free blacks and slaves were not permitted to serve in the Confederate Army, either through conscription or voluntary service, though many officers had slaves in the military encampments, to act as cooks and servants for their owners. The Confederate states also extended the enlistments of those already serving in the Army to three years. Most had been serving one year terms.
By the end of the war, beginning in early 1864, the age at which a Confederate male was drafted into the Army was extended to 50, and the terms of services were for the duration of the war. At the beginning the draft exempted certain professions and situations, and abuses of the selective service system in the South were prevalent throughout the war. Exemptions for medical reasons could be readily purchased from Southern doctors and as the war went on the reasons for which a draftee could avoid military service were gradually eliminated by the Confederate government. In the spring of 1865 all exemptions were eliminated, and all able-bodied men between the ages of 17 and 50 were subject to compulsory service, under the control of regional commanders.