These regimental buttons were excavated in Birchtown at archaelogical site AkDi-23. How did the buttons get there? Two possibilities: they were available to the Black Loyalists as surplus, or the person who lived in the house played a military role in the American Revolutionary War.

The pewter button on the left is from the Second American Regiment and is dated between 1780 and 1782. This regiment was raised in Philadelphia and New York in 1778 and was drafted into other regiments at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1782.

Three cannons on a button indicate the British Royal Artillery. The particular way in which the cannons were represented changed from time to time. The style on this copper-alloy button is from the 1790s.