COLUMBIA - The possibility of long-dead Confederate sailors lying in state at the state Capitol for three days next April is causing concerns among business and civil rights leaders.

If the eight dead sailors from the Confederate submarine Hunley lie in state, it would be a rare state-sanctioned public honor. Their multi-day funeral ceremony will climax with a Charleston burial attended by thousands.

In recent history, only U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., and U.S. Rep. Floyd Spence, R-S.C., have lain in state at the Statehouse, according to the State Budget and Control Board.

To some - including those who remember the angry controversies over the Confederate flag flying atop the Statehouse dome - the prospect of having Hunley sailors lie in state, accompanied by protesting crowds, is dismaying.

"We would hate to see old wounds reopened," said S.C. Chamber of Commerce president Hunter Howard.

He said if protests erupted, they could hurt the state's economy.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Richland, said he would oppose any plan to give high public honors to the dead Confederates.

"Can you imagine how we would be perceived by the rest of the world - honoring these men who fought for slavery?" said Jackson, the descendant of S.C. slaves. "I don't have a problem with the neo-Confederates honoring them in an appropriate cemetery. But please, don't throw it in our faces."

The sailors who would lie in state are from the Hunley, which was raised in 2000 off Charleston's coast. On Feb. 17, 1864, it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship in wartime, downing the USS Housatonic. The same night, the Hunley went down with its crew.

Promoting the Hunley and its crew and raising money to build a $40 million museum has been a top priority of Sen. Glenn McConnell, the leader of the S.C. Senate.

McConnell heads the Hunley Commission, a state agency that has given millions of state and federal dollars to a foundation that manages the Hunley's affairs.

McConnell could not be reached for comment last week. In the past, McConnell has gone to great lengths to separate the military valor of the Hunley's sailors from the slavery of their era. In his view, he said, the Hunley crew died in the American tradition of being loyal to a cause.

A week ago, a schedule of funeral plans posted on a Hunley Web site said the bodies would lie in state April 8-10 at the State Capitol.

In recent days, that notice has been removed.

State Sen. John Courson, R-Richland, a Hunley Commission member, said someone involved with the Web site - he didn't know who - mistakenly had posted the lying-in-state plans.

Courson said the Hunley Commission hasn't formally decided to request to have the bodies lie in state at the Statehouse.

Courson said the Hunley funeral is expected to be best-attended funeral ever held in South Carolina. Portions of it may be broadcast on live television, he said. More than 50,000 will attend the funeral or watch it on television, he predicted.

Although the event is not a re-enactment, thousands of Civil War-era re-enactors and members of Sons of Confederate Veterans chapters from around the country are expected to attend, many in Civil War regalia, to pay final respects.

Courson, who planned Thurmond's lying in state in July, said three people decide on whose bodies can lie in state at the Statehouse: Gov. Mark Sanford, House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, and McConnell.

Sanford has made no decision and has not received a formal request on the matter, a spokesman said.

Wilkins said he needed more facts.