|
Web posted Sunday, April
18, 2004
|
 |
H.L.
Hunley: A final farewell
CHARLESTON: Crew who manned first
submarine to sink warship is buried.
By Lindsay Danzell
Special to the Carolina Morning News
Crew
members of the H. L. Hunley were laid to rest with
honors in Charleston's Magnolia Cemetery on
Sunday, 140 years after disappearing off the coast
of South Carolina near Sullivans
Island.
The crew set out Feb. 17, 1864, in
a submarine considered by many the Confederate
secret weapon, on a mission that would become
historic. That night, the Hunley torpedoed and
sank the USS Housatonic. Moments after making
history, the Hunley and her crew
vanished.
The submarine and her contents
were recovered in 2000. And the Hunley Commission
founded the Friends of the Hunley to acquire the
necessary funding to obtain and preserve the
submarine for public display.
Working on
the project were people from the Smithsonian
Institute and National Geographic.
"Like
many good stories, it means a lot to many
different people," said Robert Neyland, the Hunley
project manager and chief archaeologist. "The
Hunley was the precursor to 20th century
warfare."
A week of events that started
Monday and ending with the burial of the eight
crewmen Saturday commemorated the lost voyage.
Events ranged from memorial services to Hunley
informative lectures to Civil War
re-enactments.
At the funeral, prayers and
speeches were recited and songs were sung by those
who wanted to pay respects to the men before they
were taken to their final resting place.
A
large procession led the crew from the Battery in
downtown Charleston to Magnolia Cemetery, roughly
four miles. Thousands of re-enactors were active
participants in escorting the crew to their final
resting place, while thousands more
watched.
The procession included
horse-drawn caissons, a rider-less horse, ladies
in traditional mourning dresses, and other Civil
War era artifacts pertaining to
funerals.
The crew
Since
2000, archaeologists, anthropologists and
genealogists have been working for the Hunley
Commission to identify the remains of the
eight-man crew.
"The Hunley project is not
comparable to anything else," says Paul Mardikian,
senior conservator on the project.
There
were several upsets to long held beliefs about the
Hunley crew. The first was that only eight men
were in the vessel, not nine or 10 as historians
originally thought, said Maria Jacobsen, senior
archaeologist for the project.
The second
finding was that some of the men were tall, with
one man more than 6 feet tall. A majority of
historians had assumed that they had to be short
to occupy such a small submarine, Jacobsen
said.
Lastly, all on the project were
astonished to find that four out of the eight men
were born in Europe, genealogist Linda Abrams
said.
"The more we learn about these
people, they are not telling the story of a small
Southern nucleus, but the story of all of
America," Jacobsen said.
Once the crew was
identified, the Hunley Commission searched for
living relatives. Researchers were able to find
relatives for three of the eight-man crew. The
other five also could have living family members,
and researchers are still trying to obtain such
information, Abrams said.
The family
members who could be identified were invited to
the funeral.
Many submarine veterans also
came to the procession. Most said they felt a
strong brotherhood with the crew that started a
revolution.
"I feel like they were my
brothers," said Charles Cross, a veteran
submariner from the Cold War.
"(The crew)
was the first real explorers," said N.C.
Charlotte, submarine veteran from World War II.
"Now (submariners) are the most prolific and
biggest in the Navy and the Hunley was the
beginning."
"They made the supreme
sacrifice," said Robert Hopkins, a veteran
submariner of the Cold War. "It is a brotherhood
of submariners. They died for a cause and we kept
that cause going."
For many spectators,
there was a sense of honor and respect that came
with attending the funeral procession.
"(The Hunley) has a profound impact on
maritime, military strategy," Kelly Walker of
Summerville said.
Keynote speaker Patsy L.
Limpus, president general of the United Daughters
of the Confederacy, reminded attendees they were
there to honor and pay tribute to the crew and the
sacrifices they made.
"Being in Charleston
for these ceremonies is like helping write the end
to a very old portion of our history," she
said.
H.L. Hunley crew
The
eight men aboard the historic submarine were: Lt.
George Dixon, Cpl. J. F. Carlsen, James A. Wicks,
Arnold Becker, Frank Collins, C. F. Simkins,
Joseph Ridgaway, and a man known only as "Miller."
They were the third and last crew who served on
the H.L. Hunley and were buried in Magnolia
Cemetery.
Historic impact
A
number of young people attended the procession as
participants and spectators.
"It is a
fantastic thing to see all the young people turn
out," said Vicky Evans, president of the Soldiers
Relief Society of Summerville. "If they see it
happening in real life, they will remember it and
pass it on."
Walker, who was with her three
children, said, "(The procession) allows the
children to appreciate the history of this nation
and the South. It allows them to embrace and
experience history."
"They defied all odds
and sunk a large ship in their small sub," says
Joshua Nims, 12-year old re-enactor. "(The
funeral) teaches me respect for those who have
passed a long time ago."
| | |
.gif){kind=spacer}
.gif){kind=spacer}