06-05-2025
New Admiral Semmes statue coming to Baldwin County
Editor's note: News 5 has changed this headline and story to clarify that a new Admiral Semmes statue is coming to Baldwin County.
SPANISH FORT, Ala. (WKRG) — Twenty-eight tons of granite, 'This is the original base that was put up in the 1900s to hold the Admiral Semmes statue,' said Joe Ringhoffer with the Admiral Semmes Camp 11 Sons of Confederate Veterans.
The base is now prominently displayed at Fort McDermott Confederate Memorial Park in Spanish Fort. '1600 Confederates held off 30 thousand Union troops for two weeks,' said Ringhoffer.
The statue of Admiral Raphael Semmes was on Government Street in downtown Mobile until June of 2020. It was vandalized and eventually removed.
The statue of Semmes was placed in the Mobile History Museum, and the base was placed in storage until the local Sons of Confederate Veterans took possession of the base.
'We made a deal to get it out of the city's hands as soon as possible, and we brought it here,' said Ringhoffer.
The next step is to install a new statue of Semmes, which has been commissioned and is almost finished, and then return him to his pedestal in his new Baldwin County home, 'in a commanding position overlooking the water in as rightful a place as we could get him,' added Ringhoffer. In one of the few earthen forts left from the Civil War era.
The new statue of Semmes is expected to be finished by the end of the week. An unveiling ceremony will be planned once he arrives.
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