The first Confederate conscription law also applied to men between 18 and 35, providing for substitution (repealed Dec. 1863) and exemptions. A revision, approved 27 Sept. 1862, raised the age to 45; 5 days later the legislators passed the expanded Exemption Act. The Conscription Act of Feb. 1864 called all men between 1 7 and 50. Conscripts accounted for one-fourth to one-third of the Confederate armies east of the Mississippi between Apr. 1864 and early 1865.

By volunteering before being conscripted, one could choose his regiment, otherwise it was luck of the draw.

The 154th Tennessee Militia Regiment was a pre-war organization, dating back to 1842, when it was first organized, and assigned the Tennessee Militia number 154. It held on to its designation, and when the old militia system was dropped in 1859-60, the officers and men took out a charter of incorporation, being incorporated by act of the Legislature on March 22, 1860. As soon as war was declared, the regiment reorganized at Randolph, Shelby County, and retained the old number. Since it was known as the oldest of the old, it asked for, and received permission to add the appellation "Senior" to its regimental number, to indicate that it antedated the regiments with lower numbers.
[http://www.tngenweb.org/civilwar/csainf/csa154.html]

Your find of their meeting proceedings looks interesting. Would hope you might publish on the board anything of interesting found.

George Martin