The Confederacy introduced conscription in April 1862, while simultaneously extending all previous enlistments for the duration of the war. However, there were already about 250,000 volunteers in Confederate service, a figure that would rise to about 350,000 at peak in 1863. Only about 12% of Confederate soldiers were actually conscripted, as compared to ~80% of US soldiers in WW2. The primary purpose of the conscription act was to goad men into volunteering by the threat of conscription. A volunteer could pick his regiment and company, enabling him to serve with family, friends, and neighbors, while a conscript was thrown into whatever outfit needed manpower.

With that said, Glatthaar has done some interesting statistical work on Confederate volunteers. He found that Confederate volunteers were about 40% more likely to have some connection to slavery (either owning themselves, or living in a household that owned slaves) than the ordinary southern citizens, were wealthier, better educated, and more politically interested. The latter point is echoed by McPherson in For Cause and Comrades. The idea that most Civil War soldiers were naive and apolitical is a 20th-century myth. On both sides, soldiers tended to be politically aware citizens in uniform who consumed newspapers, wrote and gave political letters and speeches, and debated the cause among themselves.