Civil War sailors from USS Monitor
buried with honors at Arlington

Two unidentified U.S. Civil War sailors whose remains were found in the wreck of the ironclad USS Monitor were buried March 8 at Arlington National Cemetery.

The sailors may be the last Navy personnel from the 1861-65 Civil War to be buried at Arlington.

The first U.S. ironclad, the Monitor went down in a storm off North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras in December 1862 and 16 men died. Navy divers found the remains in the turret when it was recovered in 2002.

The interment date of March 8 was chosen to mark the Monitor’s role in the Battle of Hampton Roads 151 years before. Commissioned on Feb. 25, 1862, the Monitor was powered by steam and built almost entirely of iron. It bore a revolutionary revolving gun turret housing two 11-inch (28-cm) cannons.

It fought one significant battle with the Confederate ironclad CSS Virginia, which was constructed over the modified hull of the USS Merrimack. The March 8-9, 1862, battle ended in a draw, but marked the first clash between iron-armored ships and signaled the end of the era of wooden warships.

The sailors’ remains were shipped to the U.S. Army’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii for possible identification. The laboratory was unable to identify the remains given their advanced age, but the JPAC narrowed down possible descendents to 22 family members from 10 families.

Facial reconstructions of the men were put on display at the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation last year.

Conservators of the wreck had a forensic reconstruction done on the two sailors’ faces in the longshot bid that someone could identify them. However, the sailors’ identities remain unknown. Enough forensic work has been done, however, to determine that they were both Caucasians who stood about five-foot-seven. One was in his late teens to early 20s, the other in his 30s.

Andrew Bryan of Holden, Maine has a strong suspicion that one of the two sailors is his great-grandfather, William Bryan, who served as a yeoman on the ship. Based on William Bryan’s age and stature it is believed he could be the older of the two sailors, although only a DNA match could make that a certainty.

William Bryan’s family was living proof that the Civil War pitched brother fighting brother; one of his brothers died fighting for the Confederacy.

Andrew Bryan said he is gratified by all the attention the burial has generated. It may fade now, he said, “but as for our family it’s a continuance ... it helps keep the story going, there’s an interest to it, people will better understand the roots of our country.”

Another descendant has been heartened by the interest the Monitor burial has generated. William Finlayson had two ancestors who served on the Monitor. One was the ship’s first captain, John L. Worden, who was injured in the battle with the Virginia; and his nephew, who served as his aide on the ship. Neither was on the ship at the time that it sank.

Finlayson said the level of interest surrounding the burial has been “just incredible” but he said he and other descendants are excited by something “you can only feel in your heart if you’re directly related to it by blood.”

Every sailor in the Navy was a volunteer at the time and the sailors aboard the Monitor knew they had a hazardous assignment. The remains of the 14 other sailors who perished aboard the Monitor may be contained in the ship’s wreckage, too large and fragile to be raised from the ocean floor, 250 feet deep.

The wreck site is now designated as the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. It’s believed that 85 percent of the ship's structure is located at the site.