On Veterans Day this week, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore honored Harriet Tubman’s legacy by posthumously awarding her the rank of brigadier general in the Maryland National Guard — a tribute to her work as a spy, scout and nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Tubman, best known for freeing and saving lives on the Underground Railroad, led 70 friends and family members to freedom, moving like a phantom through woods and rivers on the perilous route north. Known as “Moses” for her efforts, Tubman continued fighting for freedom and justice even after escaping slavery herself.

She led 70 friends and family members through the woods and the mud, crossing rivers with uncertainty and at many times only using the stars in the sky to find a way north in the black of night. She became so slick, quick and knowledgeable she moved like a phantom from Maryland to the northern states with such skills that she earned the nickname “Moses,” (or according to some history sources, the “American Moses” or “The Moses of her People”) because just like the biblical Moses, she led people to freedom.

Brigadier general is one of three ranks needed to achieve the title of general in the military. According to the U.S. Army, the brigadier general “serves as deputy commander to the commanding general for Army divisions” and “assists in overseeing the staff’s planning and coordination of a mission.”

The promotion is fitting, as Tubman’s Civil War service included not only scouting and espionage but also direct support to Union forces, most notably the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment—the Black regiment led by Commander Robert Gould Shaw, whose story was portrayed in the 1989 film “Glory.”


“This is a person who is one of the greatest Marylanders we’ve ever known, and someone who was able to risk her own freedom, her own safety, her own life in order to help others,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told fellow Hearst Media outlet WBAL-TV in Baltimore. “That’s patriotism, that’s heroism, and it’s only appropriate that we now have a (brigadier) general Harriet Tubman.”


“Aunt Harriet was one of those veterans informally, she gave up any rights that she had obtained for herself to be able to fight for others,” WBAL-TV reports Tubman’s great-great-great-grandniece, Tina Wyatt, said at the ceremony for the posthumous honor. “She is a selfless person"

Tubman’s most notable wartime accomplishment was the Combahee River Raid. According to the National Park Service, “nearly 800 enslaved men, women, and children rushed to US forces — and to their freedom. The irrepressible surge to the boats represented one of the largest groups of enslaved people ever emancipated at one time.”

Tubman died March 10, 1913, and was laid to rest in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. Her resting place is near that of William H. Seward, the former New York governor, U.S. senator and Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of state. Seward worked with Tubman and helped her find a place to live in Auburn.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tubman had a vision that the war would soon lead to the abolition of slavery. More immediately, enslaved people near Union positions began escaping in large numbers. General Benjamin Butler declared these escapees to be "contraband" – property seized by northern forces – and put them to work, initially without pay, at Fort Monroe in Virginia. The number of "contrabands" encamped at Fort Monroe and other Union positions rapidly increased. In January 1862, Tubman volunteered to support the Union cause and began helping refugees in the camps, particularly in Port Royal, South Carolina.

In South Carolina, Tubman met General David Hunter, a strong supporter of abolition. He declared all of the "contrabands" in the Port Royal district free, and began gathering formerly enslaved people for a regiment of black soldiers. U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was not yet prepared to enforce emancipation on the southern states and reprimanded Hunter for his actions. Tubman condemned Lincoln's response and his general unwillingness to consider ending slavery in the U.S.,