Statue of Civil War’s Admiral Raphael Semmes in Mobile removed overnight

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The statue of Civil War Admiral Raphael Semmes has been removed from its longstanding place in downtown Mobile.

The statue was removed overnight, and residents noticed it gone early Friday morning.

The statue was vandalized earlier this week.

Mitchell Bond, 20, of Mobile was charged with defacing a monument, which is a Class A misdemeanor, after messages were spray painted on the base of the statue. The city removed those painted messages Tuesday.

Semmes was an officer in the Confederate navy. He commanded the CSS Alabama.

FOX10 News is reaching out to officials for information about the removal of the statue.

Around the country, other monuments to the Confederacy and Civil War figures have been removed in recent times, including this week a monument in Birmingham's Linn Park.

On Sunday in Birmingham, prior to that monument’s removal, hundreds of people gathered in Linn Park, chanting and listening to speakers decrying police brutality. Some in the crowd toppled a bronze statue of city industrialist Charles Linn, who served in the Confederate Navy, but they were unable to budge the huge stone obelisk of the large Confederate monument. They battered it instead with stones and hammers, the Associated Press reported, and city leaders subsequently ordered its removal.