(Charleston-AP) April 17, 2004 - The crew of the Confederate submarine HL Hunley was laid to rest Saturday, 140 years after the vessel became the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship. A week's worth of events came to an end Saturday with what is being called the last Confederate funeral.

The the eight sailors in Hunley crew waited under 30 feet of water for almost a century and a half. And Saturday, 140 years late, the men of the Hunley resumed their journey home. Thousands of re-enactors in Confederate gray and Union blue marched in a funeral procession a mile-and-a-half long.

The crew's remains were escorted through downtown Charleston by thousands who never fought with them, never knew them. But, thousands like Howard Clark, a World War Two veteran, could still identify with them, "I think these fellows made it possible that we were able to come home after the war, because they were experimenting with the submarines."

The remains of the crewmen were in coffins draped with Confederate flags and pulled on horse-drawn caissons. The coffins were laid in a common grave in a plot along the Cooper River and placed in the order which the crew sat on the hand-cranked submarine.

After a bugler sounded Taps, the descendants of the crewmen or designated representatives filed past and threw a rose on each coffin.

State senator Glenn McConnell, chairman of the Hunley commission, led the procession, "It's unbelievable. Look down this avenue. The people are lined up to pay respects to the crew. It's a great moment for the crew and the state."

State senator David Thomas also helped lead the procession, "We incorporate history about who and what you are. This is part of American history."

The procession went down East Bay Street more than four miles from Magnolia Cemetery.

For some in the crowd of onlookers, this event might have been a colorful tourist attraction, a reflection of old Charleston. But marchers and mourners like Richard Phillips, of Savannah, take their role seriously, "We don't put no history behind us. We learn by our history, thi sis the Civil War, the Revolutionary War.  All of that was a lesson to all of us."

Tammie Bowers, of North Charleston, was pleased to see the turn out, "I think it's wonderful. I'm glad so many people have come from so many different places across the country to come and help these boys."

Many people who came to the Saturday event felt a personal connection to the Hunley crew and the Southern way or life. Elizabeth McCravy is a direct descendant of South Carolina Civil War Governor Francis Pickens, "No other place in the country do people honor their history and past than people do in the South. They don't hold onto it or pass it down from generation to generation like we do in the South, especially about the Civil War."

Estimates say as many as 8,000 re-enactors took part in what may be the last event of its kind of the Civil War. Saturday night there was a grand ball at the McCallister Field House at the Citadel.

Reporting by Jack Kuenzie

Updated 7:20pm by Eva Pilgrim