John Sledge
Port City Pages: The Legacy of ‘Colonial Mobile’
Over 125 years beyond its initial publication, Peter Joseph Hamilton's “Colonial Mobile” remains an essential source.
Little John & Nicholas Mongoula: Navigating Freedom in Colonial Mobile
Learn how two Port City men of color made a living — and made their mark — during Revolutionary-era Mobile.
The Lost Gods of Bottle Creek
Searching for the revered figurines of Mound Island.
“The Colony is not worth a straw.”
How French Mobile’s disputatious Antoine de La Mothe Cadillac shaped 1700s Mobile.
The Unrealized Tower Fort of Mobile Bay
Discover Mobile Bay's unrealized Tower Fort, its ambitious plans, and the intriguing history behind why it was never built.
Summer Reading List for Days by the Sea
John Sledge recounts his dad's affinity for the water, and his favorite nautical books and movies.
Fate or Chance at Mobile Bay?
A USS Tecumseh survivor’s eerie story.
“We will fire the town”
In the panic-stricken aftermath of Fort Mims, many Americans feared an Indian attack on Mobile. It never came.
Gran’s Seafood Gumbo
For one local historian, memories of gumbo and his grandmother are forever intertwined.
“That Awful Ship”
The ins and outs of a 1950s effort to move the USS Hartford from Virginia to the Mobile Bay Causeway.