securely hidden from sight; they dissapeared and the next seen of them was their dead bodies floating upon the water of the pond; they had been killed by the escape.  They were full-blooded hounds, such as were used in hunting escaped slaves and were about fifty in number.  The slave made his escape and was never seen again.  Will relates that it was very cold and that he does’nt understand how the slave could stand the icy waters of the pond, but evidently he did survive it.

Civil War:  It was rumored that Abraham Lincoln said to Jefferson Davis, “work the slaves until they are about twenty-five or thirty years of age, then liberate them.”  Davis replied:  “I’ll never do it, before I will, I’ll wade knee deep in blood.”  The result was that in 1861, the Civil War, that struggle which was to mark the final emancipation of the slaves began.  Jefferson Davis’ brothers, Sam and Tom, joined the Confederate forces, together with their sons who were old enough to go, except James, Tom’s son, who could not go on account of ill health and was left behind as overseer on Jack Davis’ plantation.  Jack Davis joined the artillery regiment of Captain Razors Company.  The war progressed, Sherman was on his famous march.  The “Yankees” had made such sweeping advances until they were in Robertsville, South Carolina, about five miles from Black Swamp.  The report of gun fire and cannon could be heard from the plantation.  “Truly the Yanks are here” everybody thought.  The only happy folk were, the slaves, the whites were in distress.  Jack Davis returned from the field of battle to his plantation.  He was on a short furlough.  His wife, “Missus” Davis asked him excitedly, if he thought the “Yankees” were going to win.  He replied:  “No if I did I’d kill every damned nigger on the place.”  Will who was then a lad of nineteen was standing nearby and on hearing his master’s remarks, said:  “The Yankees aint gonna kill me cause um goin to Laurel Bay” (a swamp located on the plantation.) Will says that what he really meant was that his master was not going to kill him because he intended to run off and go to the “Yankees.”  That afternoon Jack Davis returned to the “front” and that night Will told his mother, Anna Georgia, that he was going to Robertsville and join the “Yankees.”  He and his cousin who lived on the Davis’ plantation slipped off and wended their way to all of the surrounding plantations spreading the news that the “Yankees” were in Robertsville and exhorting them to follow and join them.  Soon the two had a following of about five hundred slaves who abandoned their masters’ plantations “to meet the Yankees.”  En masse they marched breaking down fences that obstructed their passage, carefully avoiding “Confederate pickets” who were stationed throughout the countryside.  After marching about five miles they reached a bridge that spanned the Savannah River, a point that the “Yankees” held.  There was a Union soldier standing guard and before he realized it, this