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The Hunley Crew Funeral
Text and photographs by J. Howard Duncan Ellen and I had long scheduled a vacation to Charleston, South Carolina for the purpose of attending the "open gardens" events. By blind luck our April 17th presence coincided with the parade and funeral services for the crew of the Confederate submarine Hunley which was found and raised a few years ago. Historians, Civil War buffs, and military reenactors from all over the nation, particularly the South, turned out by the thousands. I never heard an official estimate, but my guess is that there were two-thousand costumed marchers in the parade and about five-thousand observers lining the 5 mile parade route. Probably more than a thousand of the observers were also in Civil War period costumes. In addition to the various military units, there were quite a few "platoons" of 20 to 50 women mourners decked out in totally black period dresses. The costumed women who were wearing a standard colored dress (and most of the men) wore a black armband. I took some fantastic photographs of exquisite costumes. It was a revelation to me to see the repect paid to the Confederate flag. Yet it did not smack of modern racism. Many of the observers, some on third and fourth floor balconies, snapped to attention and saluted when the Confederate flag was marched by. There was an air of somber reverance appropriate to a funeral for war heros. The police did a marvelous job of crowd control. There were stationary police units as well as some which moved with the parade. The best I can figure it is that these people know the Confederacy lost the war but in their hearts feel that it still exists and they are dual citizens with total loyalty to both nations. We stood for two hours at one spot near the start of the parade route next to a Georgia man & wife (about 35 or 40 years old) and her mother. The conversation got around to the Lecompton Reenactors. They thought that are efforts were wonderful. After a while I got up courage to demonstrate my Henry Titus accent and ask how appropriate it was for an 1850s Floridian. To my suprise, they thought that it was an accurate with on exception. They said that it was not Floridian but rather belonged to the mountains of Northern Georgia. For more information, visit the Friends of the Hunley website. Click an image to enlarge it.
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