FOR RELEASE
August 22, 2000

Cadet Garry waits on the command to fire.

          As the morning of August 8 dawned, the sea was choppy and the sky was slightly overcast. A profusion of boats—tour boats, fishing boats, sailboats, and even jet skis—crowded around the site of a crane-topped platform some four miles off of Sullivan's Island awaiting the emergence of the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley from its 136-year-old grave. At 8:39 a.m. the Hunley was lifted from the ocean and placed on a barge to begin its journey to its new home.

Cadet Kosobud returns to position after ramming home the round.

          Four Citadel cadets took part in a reenactment battery honoring the dead crew of the submarine as it made its way through Charleston harbor. On the shore of Patriot's Point, the United States flag, the Corps of Cadets flag, and Big Red waved, marking the battery site. Cadets William Buddin, Ashley Garry, Anthony Isgro, and John Kosobud served as gunners for the cannon on the right of the gun line. Maj. Steven Smith, '84, supervised the cadet gun crew while Janson Cox, '63, commanded the firing battery. Maj. William Sharbrough, associate professor of business; Ed Freeman, who attended The Citadel; Skip Wharton, '69; and other reenactors from South Carolina and Georgia took part in the ceremony. The battery fired a volley to alert the city that the barge carrying the Hunley had entered the harbor and then fired a 21-gun salute.

Reenactors fire rounds.

          The Hunley, which made history when it became the first submarine to sink an enemy battleship on February 17, 1864, disappeared shortly afterward. Divers found the Hunley in 1995.

          The submarine is being housed in North Charleston at a state-of-art facility where it will undergo several years of scientific excavation and restoration before it is moved permanently to the Charleston Museum.