Hello, One of the ways to get out of fighting was to pay someone to take your place. I don't know how much this cost or if there is a name for it, but I've read many Civil War books that mention this. Probably why not that many "rich" people fought in the war. Later, Steve Researching: BLACK, SHIREY, ADCOCK, GIFFORD, SOUTH DODSON, VEACH, VESPER, KAHLER, DAVIDSON ----- Original Message ----- From: <LeahLBM@aol.com> To: <ALFAYETT-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2000 7:12 PM Subject: Re: [ALFAYETT] Civil War "Conscript Group" > Michael - > I appreciated your description and explanation of the Conscript Officers > and the militia... THANK you! > Since you seem knowledgeable - Do you know anything about being exempt > from Conscript?? In a letter written home to his wife, my grgr > grandfather speaks of hiring a substitute and says he would not consider > doing this if he had been eligible for conscript but since he was exempt, he > would consider hiring a substitute. (Which never happened, by the way. He was > killed outside of Atlanta in May of '64.) > What were the conditions by which a male in his early 30's would be > exempt? Other than physical limitations, of course. .... Would appreciate > hearing from you or anyone else about this as I have not been able to find > any information about exemption from conscription.... I did find one article > that mentioned if you owned enough land or enough slaves you could be exempt > - thus the reason the war was sometimes called a rich man's war and a poor > man's fight.... But no specific definition of "enough" was given..... > Can you or the list help???? - Leah > >