Most excellent finds on the State buttons and hope you find more Confederate finds today.
the railroad button is also a really cool find. here is some info on the railroad that you can read, while waiting on your son.
The Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad (R.F.& P. R.R.) was incorporated by an Act of the General Assembly of Virginia on 25 February 1834. It was at the time the sixth railroad to be chartered in Virginia. The company's purpose was to provide rail service from Richmond to the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. In 1835 the General Assembly authorized the subscription to two fifths of the Company stock. The State was proportionally represented with two Directors out of five on the Company's Board. Throughout a large part of the company's history the State of Virginia guarded its interest in the R.F.& P. by prohibiting other railroads to parallel the route of the R.F.& P. In 1836 the tracks from Richmond to South Anna were completed, in 1837 the extension to Fredericksburg. Service for the Post Office began in 1838, increasing the line's traffic. In 1842 construction of the line was finished up to Aquia Creek, eliminating the use of a stage coach. From Aquia Creek the Washington & Fredericksburg Steamboat Co. provided the transportation to Washington. The R.F.& P. R.R. bought half of the Steamer Co.'s stock in 1845. With the goal of an eventual all-rail connection between Richmond and Washington in mind, the Alexandria & Fredericksburg R.R. Co was incorporated in 1851. With the completion of its line to Quantico in 1872, a continuous rail connection from NC to Baltimore had been established. The Potomac R.R. Co. lines were completed the same year and provided connecting service between the R.F.& P. R.R. and the A.& F. R.R. Co. For a few years, the new all-rail line was used alternating with the route that included the Potomac Steamboat Co., the successor of the Washington & Fredericksburg Steamboat Co., until in 1877 the R.F.& P. terminated its steamboat contract and turned its shares back over to that Company. During the Civil War, the R.F.& P. R.R. operated largely in the service of the Confederate Army. The damage inflicted to equipment, tracks, bridges and buildings was considerable.
