The Tubman Command

March 1, 2019
Cobbs' (The Hamilton Affair, 2016, etc.) third novel follows Harriet Tubman as she leads a crucial raid on behalf of the Union Army.This novel veers away from what Tubman is primarily known for: engineering the Underground Railroad and smuggling, often single-handedly, fugitive slaves from the South to the North. Now, Tubman, aka Moses, is assisting Union troops hoping to turn the tide of the Civil War, which, as of May 1863, the North is losing. Up to now, there has been a hands-off policy toward civilian property, but it has dawned on the war office that Southern plantations constitute an unbroken supply chain for the "Secesh" resistance. A disastrous defeat in Charleston harbor has led certain officers, notably Col. Montgomery and Gen. Hunter, to espouse a new approach--crippling the slavery-based agrarian economy. Tubman and her small band of escaped slaves volunteer as scouts for a pivotal mission that forms the throughline of this novel: They are to guide U.S. gunboats, carrying 300 black soldiers, from their base on Port Royal Island to the South Carolina coast. On landing, Union forces intend to free hundreds of slaves and destroy the rice harvest. But to further this goal, the scouts must first determine the exact locations of underwater mines planted by the Rebels. Under cover of night, Tubman twice sneaks behind enemy lines to a plantation to gain intel and alert the enslaved. Tubman's world is vividly brought to life as we see her go about her daily routines: making gingerbread, befriending a cat, taking on humble duties in a military hospital. She is extolled by abolitionists in the North but still greeted with some suspicion on the part of the white Union military. Re-creating the speech patterns and culture of black and white characters alike, Cobbs strives for verisimilitude while avoiding caricature. Although Cobbs allows her heroine a brief love affair, her treatment of her protagonist is so reverential as to render Moses almost superhuman.A stirring fictional tribute to an American icon.

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April 8, 2019
Cobbs (The Hamilton Affair) delivers an immersive account of Harriet Tubman’s involvement in the 1863 Combahee Ferry raid. As a spy for the Union Army in Yankee-occupied Beaufort, S.C., Harriet works for General David Hunter. In order to convince Hunter to take ships down the Combahee River to free slaves, Harriet must discover the location of torpedoes in the river, which she does with the help of scouts Samuel Heyward and Walter Plowden. After the raid commences, complications arise when there isn’t enough room on the ships to transport all the rescued slaves, though many are freed in the raid. Rich historical detail adds texture, but the highlight is Harriet, a woman who repeatedly risks her life for the freedom of others. Cobbs’s terrific portrait of Tubman will both move and inform readers.

May 1, 2019

It's 1863; Harriet "Moses" Tubman is fighting for everyone to know a "sweet land of liberty." A big blow for freedom can be struck if plantations on the Combahee River in South Carolina are taken. But Harriet has problems: locating underwater torpedoes; warning enslaved people; dodging overseers (and alligators); leading spies; praying for her daughter; timing tides; convincing a skeptical Union command to trust her; and making enough gingerbread to sell, since her vital scout work is unpaid. Plus, she needs to recruit and integrate formerly enslaved soldiers. Then there's Samuel Heyward, her assistant, whom she loves. Her husband left her for a free wife, and Samuel's wife was "assigned" to him in bondage. This work is vividly woven and studded with pitch-perfect historical details, from Gullah dialect to hospital gear. Cobbs (The Hamilton Affair) succeeds in her stated aim to allow history to teach us through our imaginations. Primary sources are cited concerning the raid, but according to an author's note, the Harriet-Samuel relationship is invented. VERDICT If they don't mind the addition of a fabricated romance, historical fiction fans will enjoy this immersive portrait of a little-known episode of the Civil War.--Sara Scoggan, Fishkill, NY

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2019
Cobbs (The Hamilton Affair, 2016) spotlights another significant chapter in American history by putting her own spin on some of the lesser-known yet extraordinary achievements of revered human rights icon Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery to become an abolitionist and activist. In addition to her legendary work as a "conductor" leading enslaved people to freedom on the Underground Railroad, Tubman, as Cobbs so richly reveals, was an intrepid and invaluable scout and spy for the Union Army. Even more dramatically, we see Tubman commanding a group of black soldiers and sneaking behind enemy lines to liberate hundreds of plantation slaves, many of whom she subsequently recruits into the Union Army. Highlighting her close association with Union general and abolitionist David Hunter, Cobbs paints a vivid portrait of Tubman at the heart of one of the most innovative, daring, and dangerous missions of the Civil War. The heroic and brilliant Tubman is brought vividly to life as a flesh-and-blood woman and a strong and cunning leader in this compelling and instructive fictional tribute.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)