By By Teri Errico Griffis

Copyright postandcourier

“It has an N at the top and a C at the bottom,” he said. “Those are hard to come by. Those are what our guys wore.”

Several cape clasps that held draped fabric to a uniform feature fish etchings and Scottish thistles.

Anders has found barrel taps, thimbles and stirrups.

“These two little things here are apothecary weights,” he said of a pair of tiny metal artifacts. “The druggest, when he’s mixing stuff, had these to weigh the amount of the drug.”

Each item has been meticulously preserved and researched.

For the larger axe heads, Anders enlisted Axel Macon with Lowcountry Relic Recover to restore them and add wooden handles. For the smaller pieces, he has depended on fellow archaeologists, as well as books like “William Washington Cavalryman of the Revolution” by Stephen E. Haller.

With his latest read, “The Oligarchs in Colonial Revolutionary Charleston” by Kinloch Bull Jr., Anders has been able to piece together artifacts possibly owned by Washington’s family.

Metal detectors don’t typically pick up anything larger than 10-12 inches, Anders said, so unless a remnant is a larger object, things buried about two feet or deeper are often lost as land gets backfilled and redeveloped.

“You can see the growth around Charleston and where there are these developments going up and once they’re up… that’s that’s about it,” he said.

In Poplar Grove, much of the land is still untouched, so findings are that much closer to the surface.

The original homeowners were assumed to be wealthy given the Delft China and other ruins on the property.

Anders owes a lot to Mills for allowing him to dig locally, and has even more thanks for his wife for supporting his hobby that extends to digging up artifacts and collecting sports memorabilia.

“A lot of my detecting buddies are somewhat envious,” he said with a laugh. “I’ve got such a relic rich land available to me within my own backyard.”