Wilmington Journal

Unveiling of a Statue in Mobile—Oration by Rev. Dr. Palmer—The Gray and the Blue—Beautiful and Touching Tribute from Federal Soldiers.
MOBILE, April 27.—The memorial exercises here to-day were witnessed by the entire community and vicinity. A beautiful statue was unveiled, Rev. Dr. B. M. Palmer, of New Orleans, orator. After delivering a beautiful and appropriate address, and just as Admiral Semmes was about to unveil the statue, Colonel Wickerman, our popular postmaster, who was a Federal soldier during the war, stepped forward and presented the Admiral with a beautiful wreath of flowers, in the shape of a circle and cross, accompanied by the following touching and appropriate note:
"This floral offering is tendered with the kindly and sympathetic greetings of surviving Federal soldiers resident in Mobile, who honor the brave and heroic dead of the late war and desire your acceptance of the same as a humble tribute to valor and unselfish devotion to a cause held dearer than life. Fresh be the memory of those under the sod and the dead awaiting the judgment day; under the one the blue, under the other the gray." Admiral Semmes accepted the floral offering in a neat and appropriate address. At the completion, the statue was unveiled amid peals of artillery from guns kindly loaned by the Federals for that purpose. Another pleasant incident of the occasion was the following touching and acceptable offering:
"APRIL 27, 1874.—From the officers of the United States army, stationed at Mount Vernon Barracks, Alabama, to the Mobile Cadets, as a mark of respect to the memory of their gallant dead, and in recognition of their manly and generous action in contributing to the decoration of the graves in the National Cemetery at Mobile, Ala., on the 30th of June, 1873."
Everything passed off delightfully—all the military companies, fire companies and societies participating.