#combahee ferry

Harriet Tubman Inducted into Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame; Back on Track to Grace the $20 Bill

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson) On Veteran’s Day in 2018, I posted the following to the Good Black News Facebook Page with the photo above: This is Harriet Tubman in her later years. She lived into her early 90s and of course is best known for leading over 400 enslaved people to freedom as a conductor on the Underground Railroad. What is less well known is that during the Civil War…

A letter from Otho Holland Williams to Gen. Nathanael Greene on Oct 2,1782, mentioned our dear Laurens. It’s misspelled as Laurence, which wasn’t uncommon. 

On June 2, 1863, Harriet Tubman planned and guided a significant armed raid (becoming the first woman to do so in the Civil War) against Confederate forces, supply depots, and plantations along the Combahee River in coastal South Carolina. This is known as the Raid at Combahee Ferry.

Sherman’s March, February 5, 1865: Three dead Federals and Mr. Trowell’s house in ashes

For the third day in a row, I’ll discuss the progress of Major-General William T. Sherman’s Great March and say there was not a lot of marching!  But for those at Sister’s Ferry 150 years ago today, the traffic jam was almost resolved:

The Seventeenth Corps did no major marching on February 5, 1865.  Though some of their patrols bumped up against Confederates operating in front of the Little…

Sherman’s March, February 2, 1865: Skirmishing everywhere!

Yesterday I put some of the geographic and “demographic” aspects of the first days of Major-General William T. Sherman’s advance into South Carolina.  Today, let me focus on more of the martial aspects.   Lots of skirmishes broke out across the line of advance on February 2, 1865.  Some of those are depicted on the map below with yellow stars:

As mentioned earlier, the level of skirmishing in…

Today in history: On June 2, 1863, during the Civil War, Harriet Tubman and Col. Montgomery led the Raid at Combahee Ferry.

The Union Army raid along the Combahee River in South Carolina liberated more than 700 Black people from slavery and destroyed millions of dollars worth of confederate supplies. Many of the freed men joined the Union Army.

Harriet Tubman was the only woman to plan and lead such a military raid; it's success led the Union Army to copy its tactics in other raids.

(image: painting by Paul Collins: Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad)