Harriet Tubman’s Civil War started years before the first shots were fired on Fort Sumter in South Carolina in April 1861. Some might argue that it began with her first defiant act as a slave, that of running away at the age of six to avoid a whipping when she was caught taking a lump of sugar. But it was Tubman’s battles to claim liberty for scores of friends and relatives that marked the beginning of a strategic, political and even military consciousness that eventually prepared her for a role on the battlefields. Her leadership skills, honed on the escape missions she successfully conducted from the Eastern Shore, and the support systems and close community relationships she forged in the Northern U.S. and Canada, earned her the title “Moses of her people.”
These leadership skills, combined with a passion and commitment to fight for freedom, brought Tubman to the attention of Massachusetts Governor John Andrew. In January 1862, Andrew made arrangements for Tubman to travel to South Carolina, where he believed she would be useful in the Union war effort. Given her ability to move in and out of hostile territory undetected, he probably assumed that as a natural leader of fleeing slaves she would be helpful in dealing with the hundreds of “contrabands”, or former slaves, flooding Union camps at Port Royal. Andrew and Tubman conceived of the idea that “she would be a valuable person to operate within the enemies lines in procuring information & scouts.” ....
...Tubman set her sights on participating more directly in armed conflict, bringing herself in closer contact with generals and other officers. Tubman’s reputation as “Moses” was obviously known in the camps; stories of her raids on the Eastern Shore inspired admiration and respect from some soldiers, and her relationship with white people in positions of power, like Thomas Wentworth Higginson, must have also played a role in making her a leader in the camps among the freedmen. Tubman effectively ferreted out information on rebel locations and movements from the local black population, and passed it along to Generals Stevens, Sherman and Hunter. Before long, Tubman was scouting into the interior regions, beyond the occupied areas of Port Royal district, up the rivers and streams to assess rebel troop activities, offering “much and very valuable service acting as a spy within the enemy lines.” She gained the confidence of several local men: Isaac Hayward, Mott Blake, Gabriel Cahern, Sandy Sellers, George Chisholm, Solomon Gregory, Peter Burns, Charles Simmons, Samuel Hayward and Walter D. Plowden, who, through her influence, became “the most valued scouts and pilots in the Gov’t employ in that Department.” On January 7, 1863, Tubman was given a requisition for one hundred dollars “secret service money.” With these funds, she and her band of scouts supported themselves and bribed nervous informants, like slaves still living in Confederate-controlled territory nearby, for crucial information.
Tubman moved easily about the physical landscape: the geography of Port Royal district was very similar to the landscape of Dorchester County and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Numerous bays, rivers, streams, creeks, marshes and swamps divided the land and defined daily life much in the same way water defined life in Dorchester County. The water was both a barrier between, and a means of access to, various places in the district. Tubman was quite comfortable navigating both on land and by water. Although the fields sprouted rice and cotton rather than the grain and cereal of the Eastern Shore, the sameness of the physical landscape worked to Tubman’s advantage...
