Everyone is always talking about that Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, but, Mobile, Alabama, also has one which may very well be older.
While reading about the cannon from the CSS Alabama going to Mobile ( see my Civil War blog), I came across some history of Mobile's Mardi Gras.
SOME INTERESTING STUFF:
1703-- First Mardi Gras
1861-- The Beouf Gras Society, founded in 1711, disbanded as many members were serving in the Confederate military.
1864-- The city cancelled the celebration in the face of Union forces after the Battle of Mobile Bay.
1866-- Joseph Stillwell Cain revives Mardi Gras in open defiance of Union occupation troops. Cain and 16 others dressed as Chickasaw Indians and drove a charcoal wagon down the street. The Chickasaws had never lost in battle.
Cain named himself "Chief Slackabamorinico" and his band called themselves "The Lost Cause Minstrels."
I Wonder If They Were Throwing Beads? --DaCoot
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