ID This Snake (black rat???)

So in the front yard is what's left of a tree trunk that came down and the trunk was left to rot away with time. I was walking past and noticed this guy hanging onto the base of the tree, I'm pretty sure it's a black rat, a little aggressive/ defensive and looks to be a hatchling...











A day or two later it was much colder and I found another one laying on top of the leafs at the base of the tree, I thought it would be dead being so cold, but when I picked it up it showed some signs of life and after it warmed up it was fine.

Then today I was looking again and didn't see any, but later I looked on the other side of the tree and WAY up at the top on the side that gets late day sun was another baby, so i knocked it down with a milk weed stem and caught it on the way down, again aggressive/ defensive.

I'm now thinking somewhere in the tree trunk is a nest of eggs. I remember in late summer their was a BIG snake molt hanging in the tree, so that might have been mom. I also saw an adult black rat about 150' from the tree and know we have some in the area.

Definately a black rat snake. Eggs were probably layed inside the tree.