Harriet Tubman Planned, Organized and Successfully Led a Union Military Operation Against Confederate Troops During the Civil War.
You can see my previous posts on Harriet Tubman at Part I, Part II and Part III.
After the Union gave Harriet Tubman her new orders for her to organize an espionage ring to help the Union Armed Forces defeat the Confederate States Armed Forces, the Union Army subsequently asked her to lead a military operation in South Carolina, which mission she accepted. Harriet Tubman made her last trip as a conductor on the Underground Railroad in December 1860. But her work for the cause of liberty and the emancipation of slaves had not ended.
Relying on intelligence that Tubman had gathered through her espionage network, Colonel James Montgomery asked Tubman in 1863 to lead a secret military mission against Confederate Armed Forces in South Carolina Harriot Tubman was the only woman known to have led a military operation during the American Civil War. Tubman successfully carried out this Union military mission and led boats carrying Union troops into the dangerous Confederate territory on the Combahee River, which successful military mission destroyed influential and wealthy Confederate rice plantations and dealt a huge psychological blow to the Confederacy.
On June 22,1863, Tubman and Union boats carrying Black troops journeyed into the dangerous Confederate territory on the Combahee River to free enslaved people and destroy wealthy Confederate rice plantations. Through her work as a covert operative, Tubman in advance of the raid had gained vital enemy information on the locations of mines and Confederacy torpedoes. Slaves had willingly traded this information in exchange for their promised freedom.
An armed Tubman herself led the 150 Black Union troops and a trio of federal ships. Tubman navigated the Union troops through 25 miles of the hostile Combahee riverfront that was home to the most powerful aristocratic plantation owners of the Old South. Tubman was able to steer the Union troops away from danger, and Union boats proceeded without harm because Tubman knew where the Confederate mines had been submerged. Tubman's skills of espionage kept the Black troops as well as the Union gunboats unharmed. Tubman organized, led and oversaw this military operation with a colonel she trusted, making her the first and only woman to organize and lead a military operation during the Civil War.
Tubman skillfully planned this to not only help the Union Army beat the Confederates, but to help hundreds of enslaved Blacks in South Carolina escape during the Union Army gunboat journey. Tubman had prepared well for this military raid. Tubman had spread the word in advance to hundreds of locals that these Union boats could carry them to freedom if they rushed to the Union boats. Tubman led the gunboats to specific spots along the shoreline where she knew the fugitive slaves were hiding and waiting to be rescued by her. At first, many of the slaves were frightened when seeing the Union soldiers. But when the signal was given, hundreds of slaves rushed to the boats to be rescued by the Union army.
“Moses is coming.”
All along the Combahee River, formerly enslaved people were lined up waiting for the boats, having heard “Moses” was coming. “I never saw such a sight,” Tubman recalled. “Sometimes the women would come with twins hanging around their necks; it appears I never saw so many twins in my life; bags on their shoulders, baskets on their heads, and young ones tagging along behind, all loaded; pigs squealing, chickens screaming, young ones squealing.”
As Tubman guided the vessels up the river avoiding the mines, more slaves were rescued and eventually 750 former slaves boarded the boats. The boats that Tubman led, however, also had a specific search and destroy military mission. They carried Union troops who exited the boats and went onto the shore and succeeded in destroying several influential South Carolina plantation estates owned by powerful Confederate leading secessionists. During the raid, Union soldiers took the Confederate supplies and destroyed Confederate property.Confederate troops were dispatched to challenge the Union raiders, but it was too late. They were able to stop only one slave from escaping to the Union gunboats by killing her. None of the Confederate artillery they fired hit any of the Union gunboats.
Harriot Tubman was the only woman known to have led a military operation during the American Civil War. Thanks to the intelligence she provided, the Union boats and over 750 slaves escaped unharmed. The Combahee River Raid led by Harriet Tubman was a major Union military victory and dealt a deep psychological blow to the Confederate forces.
Under Tubman’s leadership, it was a successful military operation. As a result of her espionage and skills as an organizer, more than 750 former enslaved persons were rescued during the Combahee River Raid, approximately 100 of them went on to enlist in the Union army. This is in addition to the enslaved Blacks she had already rescued, risking her own life to go back to the Confederate states to lead them to the North to freedom, prior to her working for the Union Army.
Tubman went on other military expeditions and continued her work as a covert operative for the Union, gathering much vital information for the Union army. One Union general was reluctant to let Tubman leave South Carolina to do other work for the Union because he felt her services were too valuable to lose, as she was able to get more useful vital intelligence than any other spy.
However, Tubman was never paid all the benefits the Union owed her for her work during the Civil War but this was later supplemented for her work as a nurse for the soldiers.
After slavery was legally abolished by law, many states passed harsh apartheid statutes and Jim Crow culture flourished. Harriet Tubman returned to live in Auburn NY after the Civil War.
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