By: Harriet McLeod
FOLLY BEACH (REUTERS).- The tiny island city of Folly Beach, South Carolina, paid tribute this week to Union soldiers whose bones were found there more than a century after the Civil War ended. Residents, visitors and Civil War re-enactors gathered at a riverside park on Friday for ceremonies that included rifle and cannon fire salutes, bagpipes and the unveiling of a historical marker to the soldiers’ unit, General Edward A. Wild’s “African Brigade.” The unit camped here from 1863 to 1865. It consisted of the 55th Massachusetts Regiment, free men, and the First North Carolina Infantry, former slaves. This year, states North and South are holding commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the first shots of which were fired nearby in Charleston harbor. The bloodiest war in American history claimed 620,000 American lives and ended slavery in the United States. In 1987, Civil War relic hunter Robert Bohrn was exploring a vacant lot on Folly Beach