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Notes -
The British aristocracy were over-represented among the dead in WW1 and WW2 (and, as far as I am aware, in most of the 19th century wars). That is, of course, to be expected for a group that justifies its privileges by claiming to be a warrior elite. As far as I am aware, the same was true for the Germans. (The Prussian aristocracy was uncomplicatedly a real warrior elite in WW1. In WW2 the Waffen SS did more dangerous stuff than the Reichswehr, and Nazi elites' sons were more likely to be in it).
That the planter class in the Confederacy widely dodged the draft would be surprising to me, if true. They tended (as do their descendants in the red tribe elite) to see themselves as a warrior elite.
I've looked into this, and those are good counterexamples to the rule I posited in the above post. I suppose feudalism would be another case where the 2nd estate did most of the fighting despite being the ruling class. The early 20th century US was another example of all classes sharing a similar burden in terms of military service.
My point about more powerful people in society avoiding service, or altering their service to make it better, probably needs a bit more refinement and may be more circumstantial than universal. I do think my central point about coercion still stands though; all agrarian and industrial societies I know of relied on coercing a lot of men to do their gender roles in regards to military. People skirting those requirements is a perennial source of complaints.
They didn't really engage in illegal draft dodging; it was primarily about abusing legal ways of avoiding service, or making your service better. Substitution, being employed in an essential industry, and volunteering for a better assignment were common ways it was done. I don't know if statistically the planters were more likely to do this than the middle class or, when they were able to, the lower class, but it was a source of resentment that many Confederate men were able to skirt the draft and avoid the worst service.
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