I’d rather die than be a slave
Image: “Harriet Tubman,” by Mark Fredrickson.
They referred to her as “Moses” for guiding the enslaved from the South to freedom in the North. But, Harriet Tubman’s resistance to slavery extended beyond her role in the Underground Railroad. As a Union Army soldier and spy during the Civil War, she made history by becoming the first woman to lead an armed US military mission.
In June 1863, she joined Union troops in a covert nighttime assault on the banks of the Combahee River. It is known as the legendary Combahee Ferry Raid. This is that story.
In the 1850s, Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross) was primarily involved with the Underground Railroad. However, her dedication to the abolitionist cause extended far beyond this effort.
As the Civil War erupted in 1861, Tubman collaborated with fellow abolitionists, making her way south to support those seeking refuge behind Union lines. In 1862, Tubman left her Auburn, New York home and, on the invitation of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew, journeyed to the Union-controlled Hilton Head region in South Carolina, which the Union Army had secured early in the war.
She subsequently arrived in Beaufort, South Carolina, after the U.S. Navy’s victory at the Battle of Port Royal, where they captured Port Royal, Beaufort, and the Sea Islands. Swiftly acclimating to her environment, Tubman took on roles at various Union camps across the state and actively offered her services as a spy.
Image: Harriet Tubman as a young woman ca 1868.
During this time, as planters retreated, they left behind tens of thousands of “contrabands”—previously enslaved individuals who had escaped their Confederate captors during the Civil War. Recognizing the need, the federal government took responsibility for their care. Leading a team of scouts, Tubman’s intelligence gathering played a crucial role in some of the war’s most audacious operations.
By the time the Emancipation Proclamation came into effect on January 1, 1863, Tubman had already established herself as a pivotal volunteer for the Union Army in South Carolina, all while being recognized as a leading abolitionist back in Boston. Over the next months, many Northern volunteers descended on Beaufort to participate in “The Port Royal Experiment” — the most extensive social experiment of its era in U.S. history.
These volunteers managed labor on Sea Island cotton farms, provided education to the refugees, and managed stores. Both the Massachusetts governor and The New England Freedmen’s Aid Society dispatched volunteers.
But, Harriet Tubman stood out.
She had dedicated ten years as an Underground Railroad conductor, freeing herself from slavery and then risking her life multiple times, making nearly 13 journeys to rescue about 70 kin and community members, and guiding another 60 to 70 Black Americans. Venturing into South Carolina, a slave stronghold deep in the South, Tubman braved the very “Belly of the Beast.”
On this journey, she liberated those she didn’t personally know and navigated a language barrier with the Gullah Geechee-speaking Black community, all while striving to abolish slavery.
For months, Tubman served as a laundress and nurse, even starting a wash house, until she received orders to establish a spy ring.
Having demonstrated her skill in discreetly collecting information, building alliances, and evading capture during her leadership of the Underground Railroad, Tubman now took charge of a covert military operation in South Carolina’s low country. Her primary goal? To dismantle the institution of slavery and, in the process, decisively defeat the Confederacy.
Image: Source: A rice raft with Gullah Geechees near Georgetown, S.C., in 1904.Photo: College of Charleston Stereoscopic Views, Special Collection, Addlestone Library.
In Beaufort, Tubman took it upon herself to meet all those escaping from the Confederacy. Through her interactions and interviews with these refugees, she gained invaluable intelligence, often more than anyone else. She enlisted the expertise of local scouts, including Peter Barns, Motte Blake, Sandy Salters, Solomon Gregory, Isaac Hayward, Gabriel Cohen, and George Chrisholm.
She also collaborated with pilots familiar with local waterways, namely Samuel Heyward and Charles Simmons, who had previously served as guides up the Combahee River.
In Kasi Lemmons’s 2019 film, “Harriet,” the ending scene showcases Harriet Tubman passionately speaking about the enduring threat of slavery, symbolized as a “snake”, to Black Americans. Despite their freedom, the menace of slavery persisted. She rallied Black soldiers around the cause of liberating those still under the yoke of bondage.
As the scene unfolds, enslaved workers labor in the rice fields along the Combahee River, providing sustenance for the Confederate populace and troops during the Civil War. The question she posed: Were they prepared to confront and end this evil? The time had come to confront the menace head on.
Kate Clifford Larson, the historian and author of “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero,” has remarked, “Tubman was both fearless and courageous. She possessed a unique sensibility, earning the trust of the Black community. The Union officers recognized that they didn’t have the same rapport with the locals, but Tubman did.”
Tubman partnered with Colonel James Montgomery, an abolitionist who commanded the Second South Carolina Volunteers, a Black regiment. Together, the two planned a raid along the Combahee River, to rescue enslaved people, recruit freed men into the Union Army and obliterate some of the wealthiest rice plantations in the region. Montgomery led a force of approximately 300 men, of which 50 hailed from a Rhode Island Regiment.
Meanwhile, Tubman recruited eight scouts to help map the region and notify the enslaved about the timing of the raid.
On June 2, 1863, under the cover of night, Colonel Montgomery, Harriet Tubman, and their team of spies, scouts, and pilots boarded three U.S. Army vessels. The Black soldiers of the Second South Carolina Volunteers and white officers from the Third Rhode Island Heavy Battery joined them, all setting their sights on St. Helena Sound.
But there was a problem immediately. One vessel ran aground, forcing the team to proceed with just the remaining two. Undeterred, the group navigated the twists and turns of the Combahee River and reached the Combahee Ferry by dawn. There, they moved silently through the creeks and rescued enslaved workers from the rice fields. To expand their rescue efforts, they dispersed and rowed boats to distant plantations, liberating more people.
After expertly guiding Union boats through mine-riddled waters, Tubman and her team managed to rescue over 700 enslaved people from nearby plantations, all while evading gunfire and artillery from Confederate soldiers and enraged slave owners. By the time Confederate forces grasped the scope of the raid, the damage was extensive.
Hundreds of men, women, and children had fled. Although Confederate forces tried to thwart the escapees, they succeeded in stopping only a single individual by ending her life. Their artillery efforts also proved futile, as they failed to hit any of the Union vessels.
Image: On to Liberty, Theodor Kaufmann, oil painting, 1867.
Tubman had gained vital information about the location of rebel torpedoes planted along the river from slaves who were willing to trade information for freedom. Because of this information, Tubman was able to steer the Union ships away from any danger. She led the ships to specific spots along the shore where fugitive slaves were hiding and waiting to be rescued. At first, many of the slaves were frightened by the Union soldiers’ presence, but Tubman was able to convince them to come aboard.
As the boats traveled upriver, more slaves were rescued and eventually 750 boarded the vessels. The boats, however, also had a specific military mission.
They carried Union troops who came on shore and succeeded in setting fire to several influential South Carolina estates owned by leading secessionists, including the plantations of the Heyward, Middleton, and Lowndes families.
Many of the Union soldiers who took part in the raid were former slaves who saw the burning and pillaging of these estates as an opportunity to enact revenge on the master class.
“I ‘nebber see such a sight,” Tubman later recollected about witnessing enslaved Black people racing for safety as they sensed the U.S. Army boats approaching the Combahee River. She said the enslaved emerged “like startled deer” from their sanctuaries. Observing what they believed were “Lincoln’s gunboats come to set them free,” Tubman said they flocked to the river’s edge.
Image: Harriet Tubman underground railroad national historical park Maryland
The rapid assembly of such a vast number of men, women, and children, potentially hundreds or even thousands, led Tubman to speculate about some “mysterious telegraphic communication.” They came with bags slung across their backs, baskets atop their heads, amidst the chaotic backdrop of young ones trying to catch up, pigs’ squealing, chickens’ hollering, and the tearful cries of children.
Making her way through the mud and tall grass, Tubman was determined in her pursuit. But when the order came from the white commanders to hasten back to the boats, Tubman, caught in her long dress, stumbled, causing it to tear nearly off. The following days, Tubman, undoubtedly the “black woman” leading and inspiring the raid, addressed a congregation in a Beaufort church, highlighting the sacrifices made for freedom and urging them to confront the enduring threat of slavery.
In response, around 150 men from Combahee joined Colonel Montgomery’s Second South Carolina Volunteers.
Subsequently, in a letter to the Boston Commonwealth, Tubman reached out to her “Boston friends” from the abolitionist and suffragist circles, seeking a sturdy “bloomer dress” fit for future expeditions.
Image: Company of Colored Troops, 1865 New York Public Library
She anticipated she would be on another mission soon, perhaps even before they could supply the dress.
Though many involved in the raid, including Tubman, were illiterate, and few accounts remain, Tubman’s significance in the anti-slavery movement is undeniable. Only a select few abolitionists, notably Frederick Douglass and the sons of William Lloyd Garrison, truly recognized her contributions.
Her collaboration with the Second South Carolina Volunteers and the U.S. Colored Troops solidified her legacy.
Harriet Tubman stands unique as the sole woman known to lead a military operation during the American Civil War. Her invaluable intelligence ensured the safety of the Union boats and the escape of over 700 slaves, with 100 men joining the Union Army ranks.
Image: A photographic portrait of famed abolitionist and political activist Harriet Tubman at middle age.
And the Combahee River Raid severely undercut Confederate morale.
Although most are familiar with Tubman’s Underground Railroad contributions, many remain unaware of her multifaceted role during the Civil War, including her time as a nurse, cook, spy, and scout for the U.S. Army Department of the South. While the film “Harriet” touched on this, the story’s complexity exceeds its brief cinematic portrayal.
In 1974, Tubman’s dedication inspired a group of Black feminists to form the Combahee River Collective, emphasizing global collaboration to challenge capitalism, racism, and patriarchy.
Resources
https://www.intelligence.gov/people/barrier-breakers-in-history/454-harriet-tubman
https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/combahee-ferry-raid
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/combahee-river-raid-june-2-1863/
https://armyhistory.org/the-jayhawker-and-the-conductor-the-combahee-ferry-raid-2-june-1863/
https://www.nps.gov/places/combahee-river-ferry-harriet-tubman-bridge.htm
https://www.history.com/news/harriet-tubman-combahee-ferry-raid-civil-war
https://www.southamptonhistory.org/amp/harriet-tubman-and-the-raid-at-combahee-ferry
https://southcarolinalowcountry.com/harriet-tubman-and-the-combahee-raid/
https://explorebeaufortsc.com/beaufort-history-harriet-tubman-and-the-combahee-ferry-raid/
Books
Bradford, Sarah. Harriet Tubman: The Moses of Her People. Bedford, Mass.: Applewood Books, [1993].
Bradford, Sarah H. (Sarah Hopkins), 1818. Scenes in the Life of Harriet Tubman. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1971.
Clinton, Catherine. Harriet Tubman: The Road to Freedom. New York: Time Warner Book Company, 2004.
Grigg, Jeff W. The Combahee River Raid: Harriet Tubman & Lowcountry Liberation. Charleston SC: History Press, 2014.
Horton, Lois E. Harriet Tubman and the Fight for Freedom: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.
Humez, Jean McMahon, 1944. Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories. Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003.
Larson, Kate Clifford. Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero. New York: One World Publishers/Random House, 2004.
Lowry, Beverly. Harriet Tubman: Imagining a Life. New York: Doubleday, 2007.
Sernett, Milton C., 1942-. Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. Durham: Duke University Press, 2007.
She also founded the first of what is now known as as a Nursing Home in the United States. And as usual, thank you for this!