 However, he often noted his delicate constitution and did relatively little soldiering, unlike his son who enlisted in the Rockbridge Artillery.In 1861 Boteler was chosen by the Virginia Convention to be a representative to the Provisional Confederate Congress.Later that year, Jefferson County voters and others in Virginia's 10th Congressional District elected Boteler as a Democrat [sic] to represent Virginia's 10th District in the Confederate States House of Representatives.