How do you date it so precisely Crusader? I've often wondered about that when there's no backmark to positively ID. (But then, I have the same doubts about Native American points dating. I think some points MUST have been made much later than dated, just maybe made by a less skilled flint knapper). Anyway, just to add more to the flower button/Civil War connection, a hastily dug shallow battlefield grave was unearthed about 6 years ago in central Virginia. The digger got a strong signal which turned out to be a Confederate cartridge box with 18 complete "buck & Ball" rounds. The bones in the grave were co-mingled with (drum roll please) Flower buttons.
We also know from soldier diaries that some southern boys went to war carrying Grandpa's FIFTY year old flintlock musket from the war of 1812. That was before the South had a chance to import all those Tower muskets from you guys across the pond. One Confederate soldier wrote about Bull Run (Manassas) "The yankees retreated in such a hurry, they dropped many of their Springfield rifles and fled. I was one of many of our boys who picked one up and kept it, along with many rounds of ammunition for it. Needless to say, I left my old .69 cal smoothbore in that field.
The abundance of .69 cal bullets found on early war battlefields further attests to the validity of the CSA often utilizing technology that was decades old, because they didn't have a sophisticated supply line, or the factories to build it. Heck, a 35 year old button was pretty much top-of-the-line RECENT for many of those guys.
That's what I have to say about that . . . from the trenches.
gz ! 
