A year after her escape, Harriet Tubman made it her mission, with the help of God, to free her family from slavery. In December 1850, she secretly planned her first rescue when her niece Kessiah Bowley and her two children were to be auctioned at the Dorchester County Courthouse. Kessiah's husband John, a free carpenter, was the highest bidder, and while the auctioneer was at lunch, John slipped away with his family. They sailed to Baltimore, Maryland, where they caught up with Harriet, who guided them all the way to Canada. Harriet Tubman returned to Maryland's Eastern Shore more than a dozen times to rescue 70-80 enslaved people, and she inspired many others to follow in her footsteps. When the Civil War began, she volunteered for the Union Army and worked as a nurse, a scout, and a spy. Her most notable military campaign was a raid in South Carolina, where she led nearly 800 slaves to the Union side. By the end of the war in 1865, she returned to her home in Auburn, New York, where she cared for her elderly parents and other former slaves.