In addition to the certificate signed by Surgeon, a soldier was issued a Quartermaster's Form, 58 or 59*, "Certificate to be given a soldier at the time of his discharge." Signed in duplicate and witnessed.

I assume one copy was retained by the soldier in question, the other remained in the Quartermaster's records. Periodically, QM records as well as other company documents, were forwarded to the War Department in Richmond.

I would believe soldiers copies did not survive long after the war. With Richmond in ruins at the end of the war, many of the regimental records were lost forever.

I suspect most of those records found in the National Archives Compiled Service Records were taken/gathered from official Confederate army files, few, is any, from individual soldiers papers.

* A copy in my records lists as Form 58, however, the Regulations for the Confederate Army show it as Form 59. I suspect the copy I have was taken from old Federal Army sources.

Of interest, many Confederate Army official forms were produced by local printing firms, and not issued by army HQ's in Richmond. Hence, variants in the actual printing vary from unit to unit, and at different times and places.