“Freedom Along the Combahee”: Combahee Ferry Raid

A Union force consisting of nearly 300 members of the 3rd Rhode Island Artillery and the 2nd S.C. Volunteer Infantry, an African American unit, raided several plantations along the Confederate-held Combahee River on June 1-2, 1863.  Col. James Montgomery led the expedition.  The famed Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman also participated.  More than 700 enslaved men, women, and children were freed.  Some of the freedmen enlisted in the U.S. Army.