2 USS Monitor sailors' remains buried

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ARLINGTON, Va., March 8 (UPI) -- The remains of two sailors who died when the ironclad Civil War ship USS Monitor sank during a storm were buried with full military honors Friday.

The interment of the two unidentified sailors at Arlington National Cemetery came 151 years to the day after the Monitor first encountered the Confederates' CSS Virginia, the first battle between two ironclad warships in which the two combatants basically fought to a draw over two days of fighting.

Several hundred people, including several dozen descendants of the 16 sailors who died when the Monitor went down in a New Year's Eve storm in 1862, attended the ceremony, ABC News reported.

The sailors' flag-draped caskets were carried on horse-drawn caissons and were accompanied by a full Navy Ceremonial Guard and a Navy band, the network said.

A Navy chaplain said a prayer that was followed by the firing of three rifle volleys and a bugler playing Taps.