Columbus was formally incorporated in 1860, just ahead of its seizure by Confederate forces (including the Louisiana "Shreveport Rebels" during the American Civil War the next year. The Columbus-Belmont State Park commemorates the Confederate general Leonidas Polk's attempt to maintain a large anchor chain across the entire Mississippi at Columbus, then the northernmost spur on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, as well as the Union response, General Ulysses S. Grant's victory at Belmont on the Missouri shore. The engagement was Grant's first direct combat during the war.