The observance will include a funeral service for two unknown sailors who died when the Monitor went down off the coast of North Carolina. The sailors' remains, recovered when part of the iconic warship was raised in 2002, will be buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.

The Monitor was the U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, marking a turning point in military history.

Michael Luchs, an assistant professor at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, who will attend the ceremony with his three sons, said the realization that he is descended from brothers who were on opposing sides during the bloody conflict makes him feel "more wholly American."

Luchs's ancestor, James Bryan of Savannah, Georgia, served in