CHARLESTON, S.C. ? More than 30,000 people are expected to descend on this history-soaked city Saturday for what’s being touted as the last funeral of the Civil War.

The remains of the crewmen who perished on the final voyage of the Confederate submarine Hunley will be buried April 17, four years after they and their vessel were plucked from the briny muck of the Atlantic.

Organizers say the hoopla surrounding the funeral is expected to surpass the attention garnered by the raising of the sub, when Meeting Street church bells pealed and cannons boomed along the harbor.

The 10,000-member funeral procession will include families of the deceased, as well as uniformed Civil War re-enactors, both Confederate and Union, black and white, from as far away as England. They will follow horse-drawn caissons from near the Charleston Battery to Magnolia Cemetery.

In this city where the Civil War began, the attention lavished on the bones of eight Confederates points up the enduring fascination that the war has for many Americans.

“Charleston was, and still is, the heartbeat of the Confederacy; it’s where the cult of remembrance is brought to high art,” said Tony Horwitz, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War.”

“And the Hunley is that rare icon, a genuine historical artifact that has national, even international significance. But more importantly, it gives Southerners a celebration they can unashamedly embrace without all the racial baggage of the Confederacy and the flag.”

Up to a decade ago, the Hunley was a mere footnote to all but the most dogged students of the Civil War.

However, it has long been revered by naval historians for its innovative technology. The Hunley was the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, a feat not replicated until a half-century later during World War I.

Robert Neyland, head of the Navy’s underwater archaeology program and the Hunley project director, said the sub is to submarine warfare what the Wright brothers’ plane is to aviation.

On the night of Feb. 17, 1864, the Hunley sank the USS Housatonic, a Union sloop that was helping blockade Charleston Harbor. After the attack, the Hunley sank for unknown reasons.

Because the sub was covered in silt relatively quickly and essentially sealed, the crew’s remains were so well-preserved that hair, skin and even brain matter were still present when the sub was raised in August 2000. Shoes still had their leather laces in place. All of the men’s bones were identified by DNA or genealogical records and separated for burial.

Confederate re-enactors carry the remains of the crew of the Confederate submarine Hunley before they were placed aboard the USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Mount Pleasant, S.C. The submarine was recovered in August 2000 off the coast of Charleston, and the crew will be buried Saturday.