Rosa Millard

In this second Unvanquished story, Rosa Millard - the mother-in-law of Colonel John Sartoris who is called Granny by both her grandson Bayard and Ringo, a family slave - is again in charge while her son-in-law is away fighting in the Civil War. She sees protecting the Sartoris property as her first priority, her way of following the Colonel's orders. In this story that means attempting to 'retreat' to Memphis with the Sartoris silver, and after that fails, righteously condemning one of the other family slaves for telling the Yankees where the silver is hidden - yet the story also shows her "borrowing" several horses in order to make her way back home (33). But if this is a sign of her decline from a genteel, morally upright southern lady to a person who is willing steal because of the exigencies brought about by the war, Bayard's narrative displays mainly admiration for her indomitable character.