The Columbus Riflemen were a storied Columbus military unit that had been organized in 1837. They had served with valor in the Mexican War, the Civil War and the Spanish American War. It was a distinctively Columbus unit with its armory located in city hall. In 1916 they and the Caledonia Rifles were the Lowndes County companies in the Mississippi National Guard. That all soon changed.
Exactly 120 years ago, two guys from over in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, decided those new machines on two wheels they kept hearing about were the way forward .