John Sledge
Reader's Choice
The 150th anniversary of the Civil War has been marked by an avalanche of good books. Besides the usual coffee-table volumes, biographies...
That Old Mobile Joy
It was a bleak December afternoon — overcast, chilly, the light rapidly fading. We were driving on one of Downtown’s less favored residential streets, and everything...
The Streets of Victorian Mobile
Following the Civil War, Mobile was slow to recover, but as the decades passed, things steadily improved. Business and civic leaders pursued better water and rail...
Wilde Card
One of 19th-century Mobile’s most colorful and memorable visitors was Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde. The flamboyant Irishman was touring the United States in 1882, and though he...
Rain Supreme
Last year, a young woman from Michigan interned where I work. Right before she left, I asked her what she thought of Mobile. “Pretty good, ” she...
An August Dawn Remembered
One hundred and fifty years ago this month, a fiery contest took place between Union and Confederate forces at the mouth of Mobile Bay. At stake for...
Defending Confederate Mobile
A key piece of Confederate Mobile’s defensive strategy was its naval squadron. Like the army, the navy changed commanders several times, but by September of 1862 it...
Bygone Structures
“Remove not the ancient landmark, ” the Bible tells us. But we Americans have always been an impatient, push-ahead people, continually building, tearing down and rebuilding our towns and...
An Elegy to Spanish Moss
Not long ago, I had to attend a meeting at the Bragg-Mitchell Mansion on Spring Hill Avenue. Having a little time before things got started, I...
Tedious on the Mud
Getting into or out of antebellum Mobile by sea wasn’t easy. No one involved with maritime traffic then was completely happy with the port. The river was to...