Led There By Slaves

Union Colonel James Montgomery took African American soldiers led by Harriet Tubman on June 2^nd 1863 on the Combahee River Raid.

Three Union gunboats set off from Beaufort, South Carolina up the Combahee River on the night of June 1^st 1863.  Colonel James Montgomery a former Kansas “Jayhawker” led several Union infantry regiments including the all black 2^nd South Carolina Infantry.  Harriet Tubman had received information from local slaves as to the location of mines placed by Confederates along the river.  As Tubman guided the boats up the river, they picked up slaves hiding along the river waiting to be rescued; they would eventually take 750 of these “contrabands” onboard.

The three boats carried the Union troops, which went onto shore June 2^nd 1863, with the mission to remove mines from the river, seize supplies, and destroy the South Carolina plantations of the Hayward, Lowndes, and Middleton families.  They moved quickly, and by the time the Confederates learned of the raid the damage had been done.