Eventually the Confederate Congress saw their error and abolished substitution. That took place at the end of 1863, so the practice was in effect during the middle of the war. Looking at the rolls of Local Defense companies raised in 1863, you will note that about two of every three members are exempt by reason of substitute.

Some substitutes made good soldiers, while others quickly made themselves scarce.

The Alabama state archives have the letters of a store owner in a small town who sent his clerk, an older single man, into the army as his substitute. In January 1864 the law had been repealed and the conscript officer came to take him to camp. The new law required that substitutes continue their term of service, so someone else had to operate the store or else the doors were locked.

People seem to expect that only wealthy planters could obtain substitutes. Just ain't so!