During the Civil War, Tubman went to South Carolina to be a nurse for the Union Army, helping many injured African American soldiers and freed slaves. Having learned various herbal remedies when she was an enslaved person, she was managed to cure those suffering with various diseases like dysentery. Eventually, she went behind enemy lines as a scout and spy, building a network and finding help to assist the Union army with raids on slave owners’ plantations.

 

Tubman’s leadership was most notable during the Combahee River Raid in June 1863. Working under Colonel James Montgomery, Tubman led 150 soldiers in a raid that freed over 700 slaves. She found information on the location of various torpedoes in the water through slaves that worked along the river. She avoided these spots, steering various Union ships around them. The military operation was not only successful in the liberation of hundreds but also destroyed the plantations of several influential owners. (To learn more about the raid, go to My Drunk History’s version, featuring Crissle West as the narrator and Octavia Spencer as Tubman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpTf1GFjCd8&t=35s.)

 

Harriet Tubman is the first woman to have led a military operation, earning her the name “General Tubman” from abolitionist John Brown. Her influence and her tactics inspired those that would hear about her accomplishments, and her win caused a fairly large blow to the Confederate army. Unfortunately, after the war, she was not rewarded for her efforts, not receiving a pension from the war until decades after.