The History Museum of Mobile prepared to host a dedication ceremony for a postage stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Mobile Bay, drawing the nation’s top postal official to the coast for the occasion.
The ceremony was set for 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 30, at the museum, 111 S. Royal St. Patrick R. Donahoe, the postmaster general and chief executive of the U.S. Postal Service, was to serve as the dedicating official for the first-day-of-issue stamp. The public was invited.
A wartime scene in miniature
The commemorative stamp depicts Admiral David G. Farragut’s fleet at the Battle of Mobile Bay on Aug. 5, 1864. The image is a reproduction of a painting by artist Julian Oliver Davidson, published around 1886 by Louis Prang & Co. The stamp was being issued as a Forever stamp, always equal in value to the current first-class one-ounce rate.
Organizers planned a program befitting the anniversary. Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson, History Museum Director David E. Alsobrook and historian David Smithweck were among the scheduled speakers, and the U.S. Coast Guard ATC Mobile Color Guard was to post and retire the colors during the ceremony.
Stamps on sale at the museum
The stamps were to go on sale at the History Museum of Mobile beginning at 9 a.m., ahead of the formal dedication. After the ceremony, participants planned to hold an autograph session, and the event was to include music and refreshments.
The Mobile stamp was one of two Civil War anniversary issues released by the Postal Service. The second depicts the 22nd U.S. Colored Troops engaged in the June 15-18, 1864, assault on Petersburg, Va. That Petersburg Campaign stamp was to be dedicated in Virginia on the same day, July 30. Both were issued as Forever stamps.
Part of a season of commemoration
The stamp dedication formed one thread in a broader season of remembrance along the coast. To mark the historic battle, the Alabama Historical Commission and the Coastal Alabama Business Chamber were sponsoring a re-enactment Aug. 1-3, extending the anniversary observances beyond the museum ceremony.
The Battle of Mobile Bay holds a singular place in the region’s history. Fought at the mouth of the bay in August 1864, it produced one of the Civil War’s most enduring lines, attributed to Farragut, and helped tighten the Union’s grip on a key Confederate port. A century and a half later, the commemorations gave residents and visitors alike a chance to reflect on the engagement and the sailors and soldiers who fought it.
For the History Museum of Mobile, hosting the first-day-of-issue ceremony placed the institution at the center of the anniversary, pairing a national postal milestone with the city’s own connection to the battle. The presence of the postmaster general, along with local officials and a Coast Guard color guard, underscored the significance organizers attached to the occasion.
With the stamps set to go on sale that Wednesday morning and the re-enactment to follow days later, the dedication marked an early highlight in the coast’s observance of the battle’s 150th anniversary.