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Article published Apr 18, 2004
Thousands gather for procession
Teresa Killian
Staff
Writer
CHARLESTON -- A fitting epitaph for the eight crewmen of
the pioneering CSS Hunley submarine that sank 140 years ago struck Dr. Chris
Rucker as he fell into line Saturday for their funeral procession."They have
crossed the river and are resting under the shade of the trees," said the
Boiling Springs history re-enactor, paraphrasing Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, as
he looked out on Charleston Harbor.The remains of the eight Confederate crewmen
of the first submarine to successfully sink an enemy ship in 1864 were recovered
three years ago and laid to rest Saturday in Magnolia Cemetery."These men taught
us and they will teach future generations the meaning of words like honor," said
state Sen. Glenn McConnell, the chairman of the South Carolina Hunley
Commission. "Their spirit will live beyond the horizon of time."The coffins were
laid in a common grave -- placed in the order which the crew sat on the
hand-cranked submarine -- in a breezy, oak-shrouded plotalong the Cooper
River.Then, after a bugler sounded Taps, the descendants of the crewmen or
designated representatives filed past and threw a rose on each coffin.In what
has been called the last Confederate funeral, the coffins were first taken to
Charleston's Battery and placed in a semicircle, a wreath set in front of
each.The sun was bright over the harbor and Fort Sumter, where the first shots
of the Civil War were fired.Randy Burbage, a member of the South Carolina Hunley
Commission, said it was a testimony to the crew that so many people had come to
pay tribute to "eight Americans who died for a cause they believed in so long
ago.""There are some who have scoffed at our efforts to pay tribute to these men
saying that because they were Confederates, they don't deserve so high an
honor," said Ronald Wilson, the commander in chief of the Sons of Confederate
Veterans. "It is our duty to respect and remember these individuals."The crowd
was a sea of 1860s-style gray and brown uniforms, bonnets and long fluffy
dresses amid tourists in sneakers, jeans and T-shirts carrying cell phones,
digital cameras and water bottles.A red Confederate flag waved in the breeze
from a sailboat near White Point Gardens, where re-enactors began gathering
before sunrise to distribute gloves and black mourning bands for their left
arms.A line of hearses, including one from J.F. Floyd Mortuary of Spartanburg,
transported the simple wooden caskets before the final procession on horse-drawn
caissons.Taps, Amazing Grace, Dixie and simple drum cadences blended with
horses' hooves, shouted commands of "left" and "forward" and cheers -- "hip,
hip, hooray.""If they had only known (almost) 150 years later that all these
people would be here to pay respects to them..." said Gastonia, N.C., native
Deborah Ruffin.For history re-enactors, the event was the caliber of a "holy
grail" -- a chance to pay tribute to the crewmen and to be part of what may be
the last Confederate funeral."This is not North and South," Rucker said. "This
is about eight men who gave their lives for something they believed in. These
are Confederate soldiers who deserve a Christian burial."To participate, Upstate
residents gave up vacation time -- from a day to a week.They spent hundreds --
and in some cases, thousands -- of dollars and months of their time to sew
dresses fit for a ball or pants fit for a soldier.Even before the Hunley was
raised, Spartanburg County resident Lynn Cogdill wanted to come."We always said
if they ever found the Hunley, we want to be there," said Cogdill, who compared
the submarine's mystery to that of the Titanic.About two dozen re-enactors piled
into a beach house that Rucker and his wife, Jeannie, rented on Friday night.
They polished so many buckles that the house smelled like brass cleaner, Jeannie
Rucker said.They laid out clothes, stuck to a self-imposed 9 p.m. curfew Friday
and set the coffee maker for 3:30 a.m. to get to Saturday's events on time,
Jeannie Rucker said.The funeral, burial and ball completed a week of events
ranging from cannon demonstrations to lantern tours.On Monday, Scott Fowler of
the J.F. Floyd Mortuary drove a hearse onto a pier as part of an event to
transport the bodies to where they would lie in state."It's hard for me to
explain how honored I am to be able to participate in an event for these brave
sailors," Fowler said. "It's something I'll be able to pass on to my children
and my grandchildren."For Glenn Miller, also of the J.F. Floyd Mortuary,
volunteering and attending the service Saturday gave him an opportunity to look
for his great-great grandfather's grave in Magnolia Cemetery. He has paperwork
regarding his ancestor's death after a wound at Gettysburg."It's so massive,"
said Jeannie Rucker, who said she gets goose bumps thinking of the Hunley
story.She's seen the flags folded, and the Honor Guard watch over the
coffins.Visitors from California and New York, as well as Guatemala, England and
France, signed in where she volunteered last week.She met a couple from Texas
that drove "just to have the opportunity to walk past the bodies," Rucker said.
"It touches a lot of people. No one knows why it went down.""They'd come up to
me and sign the register just in tears," Rucker said."It is overwhelming in a
sense and exciting in another," she said. "It's a little piece of history, and
they are all getting to be part of it."The hand-cranked Hunley made history on
Feb. 17, 1864, when it rammed a spar with a black powder charge into the Union
blockade ship Housatonic off of Charleston.The Housatonic sank, but the Hunley
never returned from the mission. It was found off the South Carolina coast nine
years ago. It was raised in 2000 and brought to a conservation lab at the old
Charleston Naval Base."These eight men would change the world," said McConnell,
noting their feat would not be repeated again for 50 years.The crew buried
Saturday was the third crew to die aboard the submarine.The first crew drowned
in the fall of 1863 when waves from the wake of a passing ship flooded the sub
at its mooring. A few weeks later a second crew, including designer H.L. Hunley,
died during a test dive.The members of the third crew were being buried next to
the other crews in a plot shaded by oaks and palmettos.Teresa Killian can be
reached at 562-7216 or teresa.killian@shj.com.