The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

One of the former slaves allocated to Rosa Millard by the Union Lieutenant. He is identified only as a stranger to her, Bayard and Ringo. He steps forward to drive the wagon when the Lieutenant asks for someone who can handle "two span" of mules (53).

This troop of cavalry is camped out at the river ford about twenty miles from the narrative's central river crossing site.

This icon represents the large group of Negroes who sought freedom with the Union army but who are turned over to Rosa Millard because of a clerical error. They are part of a much larger group of self-emancipated slaves, to Bayard it "looks like a thousand" (52), who are waiting beside the pile of confiscated chests and the pen full of confiscated mules when Rosa Millard presents the faulty requisition order that calls for "110 Negroes of both sexes" to be "repossessed" to her (54). She is actually given over well over two hundred Negroes by the army, who seem anxious to be rid of them.

This sergeant, a non-commissioned officer or enlisted leader, is in charge of the depot at the Union camp where the confiscated silver and mules, along with the self-emancipated Negroes who managed to cross the river, are held.

Philadelphy is never seen again in the Unvanquished stories after she goes off with her husband at the end of "Retreat." But her name plays a significant role in "Raid" when the Union soldiers mistake it for the name of a town in Mississippi (Philadelphia).

The orderly or clerk who writes out the requisition for Rosa Millard's silver, mules and Negroes. Apparently he has a hard time understanding her southern accent.

This soldier, part of the group around or inside the tent to which Rosa Millard is taken after she almost drowns in the river, suggests taking her "to the hospital" (51).

The Union soldiers who help Ringo and Bayard drag Rosa Millard and the wagon on shore after they cross the river are identified as a "Yankee patrol" (51).

Identified only as an "officer," but distinguishable by the "stubble of beard and long streak of blood" on his "little white face," this man warns Rosa Millard that the army is preparing to blow up the bridge (49).

Colonel John Sartoris is the patriarch of the Sartoris clan and a prominent planter in Yoknapatawpha County. He doesn't appear in person in this story, but his name does: Rosa seems to assume it is potent enough to command the Yankee troops - "I'm John Sartoris' mother-in-law! Send Colonel Dick to me!" (49).