- CHARLESTON - The grave of five Confederate sailors killed when their Civil
War submarine sank in Charleston harbor in 1863 may have been found under
The Citadel military college's football field, officials said.
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- South Carolina state Sen. Glenn McConnell,
who heads a commission seeking to locate graves of the crew of the submarine
Hunley, Thursday sought permission to excavate part of the end zone of
Johnson Hagood Stadium in Charleston, where archeologists believe they
have located the grave.
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- The Hunley sank in August 1863 when it
was swamped by a wave while moored in Charleston harbor, drowning five
sailors who volunteered to test the 40-foot submarine
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- "We are ready to move ahead full
steam," McConnell said of plans to examine a 6-foot by 15-foot trench
found earlier this week during stadium renovations. "We don't know
what we will reach until we peel back that soil and look at what we've
got."
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- The Hunley sank in August 1863 when it
was swamped by a wave while moored in Charleston harbor, drowning five
sailors who volunteered to test the 40-foot submarine, which was designed
to attack Union blockade ships.
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- The sailors' bodies were removed and
buried in a graveyard for destitute mariners on a plot of land where officials
believe the Citadel stadium now stands.
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- The Hunley was raised, but sank again
in October 1863 while sailing up the nearby Cooper River, drowning its
second crew. In February 1864, the submarine sank the Union blockade ship
Housatonic near Charleston harbor, but never returned.
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- Divers in 1995 found the Hunley about
four miles off the South Carolina coast submerged under 30 feet of water.
Efforts are under way to raise the submarine next year.
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- If the bodies of its first crew are located
they will be reburied with full military honors in the nearby Magnolia
Cemetery, where the Hunley's second crew also was buried.
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