"The rebels have a chain across the river about one mile above Columbus. It is sustained by flats, at intervals, chain passing through steeples placed about the water's edge, the chain passing under the boats."
- Report from Union spy to General Ulysses S. Grant
January 1862

Confederate General Leonidas Polk stretched this mile-long chain across the Mississippi River from Fort DeRussy, on the Iron Banks Bluff north of Columbus, to a capstan on the Belmont, Missouri shore. Polk hoped that any Union ships coming down the river would be stopped by the chain long enough for cannon fire to sink them. Most of the chain was removed after the Union occupation of Columbus in March 1862. The effort obviously failed.

In December 1925 a landslide at the edge of the bluff exposed a section of the chain. Each link weighs 20 pounds 5 ounces. Digging at the end of the chain revealed an anchor measuring 15 feet 9 1/2 inches long, with flukes 9 feet from tip to tip. The anchor had been buried 11 feet deep with the flukes in a vertical position and fixed in place with 12-foot oak logs. It is estimated to weigh anywhere from 2 to 6 tons.

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Show me all markers in:  Arlington, KY  |  Hickman County  |  42021  |  Kentucky  |  United States of America

Polk's Firepower
In Search Of ....
The Mississippi River in the Civil War
Confederate Trenches
"Gibraltar of the West"
The History of Columbus, Kentucky
The Battle at Belmont, Missouri
Fourth United States Colored Heavy Artillery
African Americans at Columbus during the Civil War
Earthquakes Along the Mississippi

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