Edda Fields-Black

And that stagnant water is breeding malaria, is breeding mosquitoes, and the mosquitoes carry malaria.

And so white plantation owners, slave owners and overseers would leave the area by the middle of May.

Even the Confederate Army had reassigned its troops.

There were no troops stationed on the Cumbee River.

Yeah, it's not going so well.

They hadn't had a win, like a real win in a while.

And people were not happy.

Morale was low because the union was on the defense and couldn't seem to get back on the offense.

And I think South Carolina, in a lot of ways, was a sore spot for the union.

This is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired.

So on June 1st at about 9 p.m.

So this is in the summertime.

It's just getting pitch black dark.

This is the time when the boats leave the docks in downtown Beaufort and they are sailing under the light of the full moon.

There are three boats, one gunboat and two transport steamers.

And the transport steamers were brought along to bring the freedom seekers back in the raid.

They were going to war against slavery, right?

They were going to war to free other people who were still enslaved.

one of the transport steamers ran aground.

And it was about three hours until the next high tide, which could potentially have dislodged it.