756 People in One Night — Harriet Tubman's Military Raid (1863)
June 1863. Harriet Tubman led 150 Black soldiers up the Combahee River in the dead of night. By morning, 756 enslaved people were free. The first woman in U.S. history to lead an armed military operation.
The Woman Who Went Back
Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in the 1820s.
At 29, she escaped north alone. Then she went back south — thirteen times.
She personally led 70 people to freedom. She never lost a single one.
The Confederacy offered $40,000 for her capture. They never came close.
Spy
When the war began, Tubman volunteered for the Union Army.
First as a nurse and cook. Then they gave her a different assignment.
Intelligence. She organized a network of freed slaves who knew the South Carolina coastline — river currents, Confederate mine positions, patrol schedules. She mapped it all.
The Night of June 2, 1863
Tubman told Colonel James Montgomery: "I know this river. I'll guide you."
Three steamboats. 150 Black Union soldiers. Midnight.
They moved upriver into Confederate territory.
Before Dawn
Thanks to Tubman's intelligence, they navigated around every Confederate torpedo in the river.
They hit plantation after plantation. Burned Confederate supply depots.
Enslaved people came running — mothers carrying children, old men clutching chickens.
By the time they turned back: 756 people freed in a single night.
What Came After
The raid made the newspapers.
Tubman received no pay. There were no regulations for compensating women in the Union Army.
She finally began receiving a pension 34 years later — as the widow of her husband.
The first woman in American history to lead an armed military operation.
Raid date: June 2, 1863 | People freed: 756 | Troops: 150 Black Union soldiers | Tubman pension: 1899
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