CHARLESTON, S.C. - It looked like any military funeral. At the end of Saturday's service, soldiers delicately folded flags atop wooden boxes and presented them to crying widows, clad in black.

But the widows never met their fallen beaus. The flags were the Stars and Bars, and the soldiers and sailors died at least 140 years ago fighting for the Confederacy.

The remains of 21 Confederate fighting men were buried Saturday in a mass funeral at Magnolia Cemetery in North Charleston.

The remains of the soldiers and sailors were recovered under The Citadel's football stadium, which was built over an old mariners graveyard in 1948. The bodies weren't removed at the time because of a clerical error.

It was the fourth Confederate funeral in six years in Charleston, where the opening shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter in 1861.

The Rev. Vance E. Polley, of Sunrise Presbyterian Church on Sullivans Island, opened his remarks with Bible verses before preaching about how history "defines the present and shapes the future."

The nation may have been divided over the Civil War, but it emerged much stronger and unified, Dr. Polley said.

The man who led volunteers in the effort to unearth the remains also spoke.

"I see people who've made a journey," South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology Director Jonathan Leader said of the volunteers. "When you do something on behalf of the dead ... you're doing it because it's the right thing to do."

At the end of the ceremony, soldiers untied the Confederate flags from atop the unpolished wooden boxes carrying the remains.

They folded the flags and presented them to the widows.

Another soldier came later and tipped his hat to each widow.

The widows then approached the graves, lingering for a moment after tossing flowers in.

This funeral was fitting because these men gave their lives for what they believed in, said Lynda Perrin, one of the widows.

The remains of 41 other Confederates found beneath the stadium were buried at the same cemetery in 1999 and 2000. Another funeral was held in Charleston in 2000 for the five members of the first Hunley crew.

They drowned in the fall of 1863 when water from the wake of a passing ship flooded the sub near its mooring on nearby James Island.