| Hunley families gather CHARLESTON, S.C. - From North and South they have come to the city where the Civil War began for the funeral of their ancestors - the crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, the first sub to sink an enemy warship. "I can't really feel sad. We're here to celebrate the lives of these men," said Richard Barker, of Jacksonville, Fla., the great-great-grandson of crewman James Wicks. The crew is to be buried today in a ceremony expected to attract thousands of re-enactors. The funeral procession, in which coffins draped in Confederate flags will be pulled on horse-drawn caissons, will make its way almost five miles from Charleston's waterfront Battery to Magnolia Cemetery. "All this re-enactment is nice, but I'm going to the funeral of a family member," said Emma Busbey Ditman of Silver Spring, Md., the great-grandniece of crewman Joseph Ridgaway, who was born in Maryland. About 40 relatives of Hunley crew members are in Charleston. "We represent all those people in the Confederacy who revere these men," Mr. Barker said. Rebecca Farence of Harris-burg, Pa., said crewman Frank Collins was her great-grandfather's half cousin. She said she didn't know about the Hunley until four years ago, when she was up the coast in Myrtle Beach the day the vessel was raised. "These are just extraordinary men - brave and strong - who did a marvelous thing," she said.
|