You have to be suspicious of inflated claims during “Black History Month”. Many stories have a grain of truth in them but are nonetheless blown way out of proportion.
The first question that leaps to mind is was this slave literate? Next was he able to comprehend military details sufficiently well to know what to convey to his handlers?
Just askin’
I don’t know. I might look up Dagler’s book and see what he has to say. Could be an interesting read.
Illiterate doesn’t always mean stupid. Especially when it was forbidden (even a criminal act) to teach a slave to read.