CREW BURIAL TO BE APRIL 17, 2004 - See Newsletter # 34 for details
Hunley Burial Information
April 17th, 2004
When and where is the Burial Procession?
The burial of the final crew of the H. L. Hunley is scheduled for Saturday,
April 17th, 2004 starting at 10:00 a.m. at White Point Gardens, followed by a
funeral procession and ending at Magnolia Cemetery for the burial.
Where does the funeral procession start and what is the route?
The event begins with a ceremony at 10:00 a.m. at White Point Gardens on South
Battery in downtown Charleston. After the ceremony at approximately 11:00 the
4-½ mile funeral procession will begin. It will go from White Point Gardens up
East Bay Street, turning right on Meeting Street, and turning right on
Cunnington Street to Magnolia Cemetery.
How will the crew be transported during the funeral procession?
The crewmembers’ remains will be transported individually by horse-drawn
caissons.
What happens if it rains?
The burial will take place regardless of rain or shine.
Do you have to have a ticket to attend the burial?
No, the funeral procession and burial is open to the public.
Will there be any other events surrounding the Burial?
Facial reconstructions and personal histories will be released in the days
prior to the burial and experts will give lectures on the Hunley, her history
and the crew. There will be lantern tours available at Magnolia Cemetery.
Details about surrounding events will be made available in the coming months
and will be posted on www.hunley.org.
Where can I stay?
The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has a list of hotels,
campgrounds and accommodations in the greater Charleston area including Mt.
Pleasant, North Charleston and all barrier islands; they can be contacted at
1-800-774-0006 or
www.charlestoncvb.com. We do recommend booking your rooms as early as
possible, as April is a very busy month in Charleston for tourism.
What if we come by RV or boat, what are the accommodations?
The Charleston Area Convention & Visitors Bureau has a list of campgrounds,
marinas and accommodations, the can be contacted at 1-800-774-0006 or
www.charlestoncvb.com.
For all re-enactor questions contact the following:
¨ For General information contact Kay Long at (843) 556-1805 or
crsladyk@comcast.net
or George Nauman at (843) 345-5554 or
naumann@bellsouth.net.
¨ For SCV information contact David Rentz at
david.rentz@tridenttech.edu.
¨ For artillery re-enactor information contact John Jowers at (843) 795-5132
or
jowersja@hotmail.com.
Please do not contact Friends of the Hunley for re-enactor information.
How do we get to the ceremony at White Point Gardens?
Directions from I-26:
¨ Take I-26 to Charleston
¨ Take the Meeting St. exit
¨ Follow Meeting St. South until it ends. It runs into White Point Gardens.
¨ Directions from Mt. Pleasant
¨ Take Highway 17 to downtown Charleston
¨ Take the Meeting St. exit
¨ Follow Meeting St. South until it ends at White Point Gardens.
Directions from West Ashley:
¨ Take Highway 17/Savannah Highway to downtown Charleston.
¨ Cross the Ashley River Bridge
¨ Exit onto Lockwood Blvd. to downtown Charleston
¨ Exit onto Calhoun St. and follow to Meeting St.
¨ Take a right onto Meeting St. South until it ends. It runs into White Point
Gardens.
How do we get to Magnolia Cemetery?
¨ Take I-26 to exit 219 B (Mt. Pleasant Street/Morrison Drive).
¨ Once you exit take a left at the stop sign.
¨ Go to the 2nd traffic light and take a left onto Meeting Street.
¨ Once on Meeting Street cross railroad tracks and take first left onto
Cunnington Street.
¨ Come all the way down Cunnington Street until you reach the stop sign. At
this time Magnolia’s gates are right in front of you.
Will tours of the H. L. Hunley submarine be available on the weekend of the
Burial?
Tours of the Hunley will not be available the day of the Burial, but will be
available Thursday and Friday April 15 & 16 and Sunday April 18 (tickets will
be available for these special tours by the end of June).
Tours of the Hunley are normally open for public tours every Saturday from 10
– 5 and Sunday from 12 – 5 and will have those hours before the week of the
Burial and all weeks following the Burial. Tickets are available at
www.etix.com
or by calling 1.877.4HUNLEY (1.877.448.6539).
UPDATE:
Date:
Thu,
05 Sep 2002 20:54:56 -0400
From:
"JUDICIARY
SENATE" <SJU@SCSENATE.ORG>
|To:
mistergwp@yahoo.com
Subject:
Hunley
Funeral
Dear Mr. Penington, Thanks so much for your e-mail regarding the funeral for the Hunley crew. We certainly appreciate your interest. The funeral is scheduled for the Fall of 2003, and the public is urged to attend. It will be held in Charleston, South Carolina at Magnolia Cemetery, where this crew will be buried with the other crews. Mr. Randy Burbage is one of our Hunley Commission members and would be the best contact person. He can be reached at 1/800/611-2823 or 1130 John Rutledge Avenue, Hanahan, South Carolina 29406-2018. With best regards, we are Beckie Gunter Secretary to Senator Glenn McConnell (Chairman, Hunley Commission
* * * * * * * * * * *
3) IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: PLANS FOR RE-INTERNMENT OF CREW
Monday April 27, 2003 was to be the day for the announcement of a date for the re-burial of the eight men who went down with the Confederate Submarine H L Hunley. That day has come and gone and it appears that the preliminary date of November, 2003 can not be met. The unofficial word is that the services will not be held until sometime in 2004. One of the reasons for the delay is that only four of the crew faces being reconstructed are ready. The remains of the other four crew members are still being studied and there is no firm completion date.
While talking to various staff members of the Friends of the Hunley, I got the uneasy feeling that maybe no one realized the immensity of the task at hand and the interest developed in participating in the burial services. The logistics of handling the over 10,000 re-enactors and by my low estimate of 40,000 visitors is not something that can be handled by a few volunteers. There are several countries like England and Germany that have submarine services that want to send their representatives, their are the politicos that of course require front row seating, family members, Ambassadors, Mayors, and Senators from all over.
The bridge run several weeks ago attracted over 30,000 healthy runners and was coordinated by a group of over 2500 volunteers.
The re-burial should be a solemn occasion burdened only by grace and dignity but I see it heading toward a major fiasco. Planning the routes, traffic control, people movers and the invading hucksters, available hotel accommodations, food, firemen, EMS, police, the military ...all have to be coordinated. In the winter it's too cold for the old folks to walk, too hot in the summer, you would have people fainting everywhere. You won't be able to fit more than a hundred people around the grave site, Magnolia is too small. So someone has to arrange for Television and big screen projectors for the visitors to visually attend. And then someone has to pay for all of this. Does registration fee, tickets and T-shirts - mementoes irk anyone. I hope the Friends of the Hunley, Inc. are up to the task.
February 17, 2004 appears to be out because S.C. Wildlife has their big meeting in that time frame.
* * * * * * *
Hunley crew burial may be in 2003
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Of The Post and Courier Staff
The burial of the Confederate submarine Hunley crew
likely will be in November 2003 and promises to be a solemn affair and
possibly America's final Civil War funeral - more than 138 years after the
fighting ended.
Although officials are still working out a timetable,
the archaeologists and scientists leading the Hunley project say they will
need much of the next two years to examine bones for injuries that may give
clues as to why the sub sank. Also, they plan several DNA and forensics
examinations that could potentially help put a name to each of the eight or
nine sailors who took the Hunley out on her final voyage.
Those tests should also help to create near-exact
facial reconstructions of each man, enough to "let them speak and tell
the stories," project manager Bob Neyland said Wednesday during a state
Hunley Commission meeting.
At present, the men are referred to as military
unknowns.
Bone injuries could be very telling in re-creating
the final moments on board the sub. For example, after the Hunley's 90-pound
black powder charge exploded into the side of the USS Housatonic, the
concussion could have caused crewmen to bang into bulkheads or even break
ankles as the blast carried the length of the iron-hulled sub.
So far officials have no definitive answer as to what
caused the sub to sink. That determination could be a year or more away and
will be reached only after all the evidence on the sub is compared on the
whole, ranging from the condition of the crew to any breaches of the sub's
40-foot hull length.
"All of this information coming together ...
focusing in on a cause, a specific cause," Neyland told the commission.
The burial timetable is still undetermined and could
depend on a variety of factors. Some officials propose waiting until
Confederate Memorial Day in May 2004 for the interment, although commission
chairman Sen. Glenn McConnell said that would take away from the other
Confederate dead observed on that day.
No matter when it's held, officials are expecting
thousands of re-enactors to show up and honor the men. "These are the
last boys to come home," said re-enactor Jeff O'Cain.
Archaeologists, meanwhile, are continuing to excavate
the very bottom of the sub and the rear and forward sections of the crew
compartment where silt is still covering the sub's mechanics. They are also
hoping to get an accurate count of how many men were on board for the Feb. l7,
1864, attack; there may have been eight or nine. Excavation has also begun of
the sub's forward conning tower, which is still filled with silt.
The Hunley project has also been affected by the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, officials report. Some of the forensics experts
involved and the labs that were going to conduct DNA testing are now
preoccupied with the victims of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center,
Neyland said.
Schuyler Kropf covers state and local politics.
Contact him at skropf@postandcourier.com or 937-5551.
Used with permission of The Post and
Courier and Charleston.Net