CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Almost 100 years after his death, a black Union Civil War vet from South Carolina finally has a veterans marker on his grave.
The white gravestone for Henry Benjamin Noisette was unveiled Thursday in a black Charleston cemetery.
Veterans are entitled to such markers provided by the government. But researchers only recently discovered Noisette's military past.
Noisette escaped slavery and joined the U.S. Navy in 1862. The Charleston native served on the USS Huron and saw action against Confederate defenses on the Stono River near Charleston and the Ogeechee River south of Savannah, Ga. After the war, he stayed in Charleston and died in 1911.
Descendants, black re-enactors and Citadel cadets watched as Noisette's great-granddaughter unveiled the marker.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWACH