Columbus-Belmont State Park preserves the site of a major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River near Columbus, Kentucky, where Leonidas Polk began fortifying the bluff in September 1861 as Fort De Russey. Regarded as vital to control of the river, Columbus became the Confederacy’s northernmost base on the Mississippi, tied to railroad supply lines and intended to help protect Memphis and Vicksburg. The site is closely associated with Polk’s massive river chain and the experimental cannon Lady Polk, both linked to fighting at Columbus and Belmont. Though flooding and erosion destroyed much of the wartime landscape, surviving relics and an antebellum farmhouse preserve its Civil War significance.

Columbus, Kentucky · USA