The first record of the site of Columbus in Western history is found in the annals of the explorer Hernando de Soto, who is reputed to have crossed the nearby Tombigbee River on his search for El Dorado.

However, the site does not enter the main continuity of United States history until December 1810, when John Pitchlynn, the U.S. Indian agent and interpreter for the Choctaw Nation, moved to Plymouth Bluff, where he built a home, established a farm, and transacted Choctaw Agency business.

The town was settled where Jackson's Military Road crossed the Tombigbee River 4 miles south of John Pitchlynn's residence at Plymouth Bluff.

Pitchlynn's which had been settled in 1810 became the town of Plymouth in 1836 and is now the location of an environmental center for Mississippi University for Women.

Because of this, the Union ordered the invasion of Columbus, but was stopped by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.

This is substantiated in the book The Battle of West Point: Confederate Triumph at Ellis Bridge by John McBride.

The decision of a group of ladies to decorate the Union and Confederate graves with flowers together on April 25, 1866, is an early example of what became known as Memorial Day.

A poet, Francis Miles Finch, read about it in the New York newspapers and commemorated the occasion with the poem "The Blue and the Grey".

They recognized the events in Columbus as the earliest manifestation of an annual spring holiday to decorate the grave of Southern soldiers.

[13] As a result of Forrest preventing the Union Army from reaching Columbus, its antebellum homes were spared from being burned or destroyed, making its collection second only to Natchez as the most extensive in Mississippi.

[15] During the war, Columbus attorney Jacob H. Sharp served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army.

[16] The mural Out of the Soil was completed in 1939 for the Columbus post office by WPA Section of Painting and Sculpture artist Beulah Bettersworth.

After a stint in the 1950s and 1960s as a Strategic Air Command (SAC) base (earning Columbus a spot in Soviet Union target lists), CAFB returned to its original role.

[citation needed] Columbus boasted a number of industries during the mid-20th century, including the world's largest toilet seat manufacturer, Sanderson Plumbing Products, and major mattress, furniture and textile plants.

[18][19] On February 16, 2001, straightline winds measured at 74 miles per hour destroyed many homes and trees but resulted in no fatalities.

On November 10, 2002, a tornado hit Columbus and caused more damage to the city,[20][21] including the Mississippi University for Women.

[22][23] In 2010, Columbus won a Great American Main Street Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

[24] In February 2019, Columbus took a direct hit from an EF-3 tornado that caused devastating damage to homes and businesses and killed one woman after a structure fell on her.

Major Employers: Columbus is the birthplace of playwright Tennessee Williams, whose grandfather was the priest of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

[citation needed] Prior to desegregation, the school formed a race relations committee consisting of black and white students who could discuss issues and determine how to handle certain situations.

For instance, the students decided to have both white and black homecoming courts so as to prevent sides being taken along racial lines.

It was continued after integration for a period, but such tracking was later ruled to be unconstitutional by a Federal court, because it was based on biased testing.

One television station, WCBI-TV 4, the CBS affiliate, is located in the city's historic downtown area; it broadcasts FOX and MyNetworkTV programming on digital subchannels.

Columbus Lake, formed by the John C. Stennis Lock and Dam, is approximately two miles north of downtown.