I'd like to remind Mr. Bonner of the opportunity Mobile and Dauphin Island have THIS APRIL to showcase themselves as the oldest U.S. ports on the GULF OF AMERICA!

 U.S. Representative Jo Bonner in the April 11, 2013 Congressional Record

CELEBRATING THE BICENTENNIAL OF DAUPHIN ISLAND JOINING THE UNITED STATES https://www.congress.gov/113/crec/2013/04/11/CREC-2013-04-11-pt1-PgE431-3.pdf

Friday, April 11, 2025 will mark 212 years since Isla Delfina was renamed and Dauphin Island became the FIRST and now the OLDEST port on the GULF OF AMERICA!

The speech I planned to give Thursday, April 11, 2013, on the steps of the Dauphin Island Town Hall but the event was rained out:

Two hundred years ago today, on Sunday, April 11, 1813, a detachment of U.S. troops expelled the Spanish guard from Dauphin Island and for the first time in history, the Stars and Stripes flew over the American shores of the Gulf of Mexico. Today we take it for granted that the dominion of the United States extends unchallenged from Brownsville, Texas to Key West, Florida, but two hundred years ago there was not one American harbor on the entire Gulf and it would take what some would call an act of war on the part of the United States to open that first harbor to American commerce and all of you are now standing where it all started, a place we call today Dauphin Island, Alabama.

Every American living on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida or Texas today should thank their lucky stars for Dauphin Island because the Americanization of the Gulf of Mexico started right here.

In 1813, America was a nation at war. For the second time in our history, we decided to take on the greatest power on the face of the Earth, Great Britain, and we knew that the blue water English navy needed harbors on the Gulf and that their ally, Spain, owned these harbors and were willing to allow the Brits to use these ports to dispose of their captured prizes, repair her blockading fleet and incite insurrection among our Southern blacks and Indians so the U.S. Congress and President Madison decided to put an end to it on Mobile Bay in April of 1813 & they did just that.

On Saturday, April 10, 1813, near Grand Bay, the flotilla that made up the American invading force split into two divisions. The armed schooner ALLIGATOR carrying General Wilkinson and Commodore Shaw along with Lieutenant Roney’s gunboat, sailed out to sea by way of the Horn Island Channel off the west end of Petit Bois Island. The rest of the flotilla consisting of at least three gunboats and fourteen small transports carrying over 600 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 3rd and 7th regiments headed toward Heron Pass.

On the night of the 10th, Captain Atkinson and a small detachment of American soldiers landed on what was then the Spanish island of Isla Delfina and captured the Spanish guard consisting of a corporal and six men along with the Mobile Ship Channel pilot.

When the sun came up on Sunday, April 11, 1813, it was Isla Delfina no more. For the first time in American history, the Stars and Stripes flew on the American shores of Dauphin Island and the Spaniards were placed on a galley scheduled to sail for Pensacola. In the meantime, the ALLIGATOR and other American gunboats cruised the mouth of the bay between here and what is now Ft. Morgan, blockading all ships and preventing them from entering or leaving Mobile Bay. They captured several ships including a Spanish transport carrying an artillery lieutenant, a detachment of troops and supplies destined for the Spanish fort in Mobile.

The armed schooner ALLIGATOR carrying General Wilkinson and Commodore Shaw eventually anchored off Dauphin Island and held a council of war to make plans for landing the invading force. This meeting must have included a representative from Colonel Bowyer who had brought an army unit down from Mt. Vernon. Boyer’s 200 men carried five bronze field cannon with them and had earlier crossed the delta on Mims’ Ferry and had marched from Fort Mims down the Tensaw River Road through Stockton. Boyer’s job was to dig his cannon emplacements on Blakeley Island across the river from Fuerte Carlota, the Spanish fort in Mobile.

As the sun sat on Dauphin Island’s first day as American territory, the American flotilla approached the north bank of Dog River and prepared for the invasion and capture of Mobile on Monday, April 12th.

APRIL 11, 2013: DAUPHIN ISLAND READY TO CELEBRATE 200 YEARS AS 'FIRST SEAPORT' ON THE GULF https://www.al.com/live/2013/04/dauphin_island_ready_to_celebr.html


DAUPHIN ISLAND: America's Most Historic Gulf Island https://dauphinislandhistory.blogspot.com/2018/02/the-streets-of-dauphin-island-following.html

 Best,

Robert Register 443-703-6271 

robertoreg@gmail.com