[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1282]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    HARRIET TUBMAN DAVIS VETERAN STATUS PROPOSAL TO THE HOUSE FLOOR

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                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 19, 2000

  Mr. TOWNS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce legislation to grant 
Harriet Tubman veteran status for her service in the Union Army from 
1863 to 1865.
  With a letter from governor John Andrews of Massachusetts Harriet 
Tubman reported to General David Hunter at Hilton Head, South Carolina 
in 1863 where she worked as a nurse, scout, spy and cook for the Union 
Army.
  In the spring of 1865 she worked briefly at a freedman's hospital in 
Fortress Monroe, Virginia.
  Harriet Tubman recruited Union Army soldiers in the South. On March 
6, 1863 the Secretary of War was informed that seven hundred and fifty 
blacks who were waiting for an opportunity to join the Union Army had 
been rescued from slavery under the leadership of Harriet Tubman.
  After the Civil War Mrs. Tubman married Nelson Davis, a private in 
the US Colored Infantry Volunteers. He died in 1888 and Mrs. Tubman 
received a pension as his widow. Mrs. Tubman applied for an increase in 
her pension. H.R. 4982, of the 55th Congress, was never enacted but it 
proposed that Mrs. Tubman be given a pension as a veteran of the Civil 
War at her request. Senator William H. Seward of New York, the 
Secretary of the State under Lincoln during the time of the Civil War 
and knew Mrs. Tubman personally. Mr. Seward advocated Mrs. Tubman's 
placement on the pension roll, for her service in the war as a nurse in 
the United States Army.
  Mrs. Tubman lived the remainder of her life after the Civil War in 
Auburn, New York. She is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn with 
military honors.
  Prior to 1863, Harriet Tubman was a conductor on ``The Underground 
Railroad.'' After escaping from slavery in 1849, she returned to the 
South repeatedly freeing other slaves before joining the war effort in 
1863. She is reported to have personally brought over 300 slaves to 
freedom including her brothers, sisters, and elderly parents.
  In 1913 Harriet Tubman died of pneumonia without being formally 
recognized as a veteran of the Civil War. I propose that Harriet Tubman 
be awarded veteran status through this bill posthumously.

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