More than 150 years after they died when their ship sank during
a storm, two Union sailors from the Civil War will be buried at
Arlington National Cemetery on Friday. The sailors' remains were
discovered in 2002 during efforts to recover the 150-ton gun
turret of the USS Monitor — the United States' first ironclad
warship — from the site of the wreck off Cape Hatteras, N.C. The
Defense Department's attempts to identify the remains over the
last decade (including bone, teeth and DNA analysis) haven't
been conclusive. Still, as Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has said:
"These may very well be the last Navy personnel from the Civil
War to be buried at Arlington." The Monitor, as you may remember
from your school days, was famous for its March 9, 1862, clash
with the Confederate ship Virginia — the first battle between
two ironclad warships. (The iron-armored Virginia was
constructed using the hull of a Navy ship known as the USS
Merrimack, so you may have learned about this as the Battle of
the Monitor and the Merrimac