INGRAMVILLE -- As the cannon thundered, the crowd could feel the hot rush of air on their faces.

Men in Confederate uniforms fired the cannon three times in honor of a Revolutionary War soldier who died 164 years ago.

Saturday at the Prillaman-Turner Cemetery, about 15 miles west of Rocky Mount, descendants of Pvt. Martel LeSueur gathered to celebrate the restoration of his federal-issue military tombstone to its rightful place.

The unusual Veterans Day weekend celebration brought out officials from Franklin County, a dozen women from the Jubal Early chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, men in Revolutionary War garb, and even the Air Force Color Guard from the Franklin County High School Junior ROTC.

LeSueur was a Huguenot and a member of the Virginia militia from Powhatan County during the Revolutionary War. Looking brand new, the white stone of his marker glinted in the noon sun, a lighted lantern placed beside it by the Fincastle Resolutions Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

The event also marked the end of an odd dispute between LeSueur's descendants and a Roanoke antique dealer who had the tombstone in his possession for more than 30 years.

In November 2006, a member of the Huguenot Society noticed the stone in Finder's Antiques and Collectibles, Rick Long's store on Williamson Road. When members of LeSueur's family learned of Long's plans to sell the marker at auction, they and the Franklin County Historical Society demanded he return it to them. Long questioned whether the marker was authentic and declined to part with the stone unless the family could prove the location of the grave.

In July, North Carolina resident Jim Self, a fourth-generation descendant, found a document in the National Archives detailing the purchase of a headstone bought for LeSueur in 1928 by his great-great-grandson. Long conceded the document to be proof enough and handed over the stone.

At Saturday's ceremony, little was said about the controversy behind the marker's acquisition. Jim Self addressed his relatives and others present about the family's frustration with "nonsense objections," but concluded that the experience had proved to be more positive than negative.

The speakers kept the mood light. Montgomery County General District Judge Gino Williams, a LeSueur descendant, gestured to his thinning hair and joked how he suspected his French ancestry was responsible for "the problem on top of our heads."

The honors given LeSueur demonstrated respect for "ancestors who through their struggle and hard work gave us life and opportunity," Williams said.

The gathering brought LeSueur descendants from as far away as California, Arizona and Texas to the quiet cemetery in southwest Franklin County. "It probably means more in one respect," Self said, "than if you'd just come to visit on your own."

Without events happening the way they did, the celebration wouldn't have happened.

"We corresponded by e-mail. I didn't know any of them by sight," Self said. "And now there they are and they're actually your cousins."

Among the things Self learned in his research was that he and Tracy Stone, the man who owns the cemetery, and whose family has owned the land since 1769, are distant cousins.

"This genealogy deal is one of the best ways to study history," Self said. "Follow your ancestors through the battles. Then they really come home."