Located in northeast Mississippi, Columbus was founded in 1821 on the banks of the Tombigbee River and was referred to as Possum Town before it became incorporated. Columbus is known as being a hospital town during the Civil War but it started out as a manufacturer of Confederate munitions with a foundry located within her city limits. Eventually the arsenal would be relocated to Selma, Alabama thereby locating it strategically south and in a better position to be protected from Union raids. After the Battle of Shiloh, many wounded soldiers were sent by train down to Columbus thus turning Columbus into a hospital town. It was said that just about every house within Columbus was used as a hospital and many places of business were used as well. Thousands of soldiers were buried in Friendship Cemetery and four Generals are also buried there as well. The Union dead were reintered in other cemeteries in the years following the war. On April 25, 1866 the women of Columbus gathered to place flowers of remembrance on the graves of not only the Confederate soldiers at Friendship Cemetery but also the Union soldiers as well. This eventually turned into the nationally recognized holiday of Memorial Day. Columbus, Georgia claims to have founded Memorial Day but Columbus, Mississippi claims to have been the first city to memorialize both the Confederate and Union dead; a fact recognized by the Library of Congress. Columbus has one of the finest collection of antebellum homes in the state of Mississippi second only to Natchez due to the efforts of Nathaniel Bedford Forrest and his troops fending off several Union attempts at attacking this historic town. Columbus is very proud of it's Civil War heritage and holds a yearly pilgrimage of it's homes and sites which attracts thousands of tourists each year.