Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:43
This is company of soldiers is "bivouacked" just outside of town. Their uniforms are the color of "dead leaves" (20). Since one of them hollers out "Hooraw for Arkansas!" when Bayard and Ringo walk by their camp, it seems likely that they are a unit that was raised from men in that state.
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:33
Joby is the oldest member of the family of slaves that have served the Sartorises for many years. That tenure apparently gives him the right to grumble at the orders Rosa Millard gives him, but he never disobeys her - or his wife Louvinia. He drives the wagon in which Rosa tries to take the Sartoris silver to Memphis.
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:30
In this second Unvanquished story Louvinia stays at home while Rosa and Bayard and Louvinia's husband Joby travel toward Memphis. As they leave Sartoris they see her "standing on the porch with father's old hat on top of her head rag" (20). At the end of the story, when the Yankees arrive at the plantation, Louvinia "holds" Rosa to keep her from confronting the soldiers, even as they burn the Sartoris mansion down (35).
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:29
Ringo, the same age as Bayard Sartoris, stands as Bayard's constant childhood companion. Although enslaved, he holds a special place in the Sartoris household, treated by the whites in some respects as a white child. He calls Bayard's grandmother Rosa Millard "Granny" just as Bayard does (27). During the story he participates as an equal when the boys chase after the men who stole their mules.
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:27
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.
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Mon, 2015-01-12 13:23
Loosh is Philadelphy's husband, Ringo's uncle, and Joby's son. Loosh is the only African-American on the Sartoris plantation who openly desires the freedom for slaves offered by the Yankees (and one of the few rebellious blacks in the whole of the Yoknapatawpha canon). Presumably he is the "black man" whom Granny dreams about stealing the buried silver (18), and when the Union troops arrive at Sartoris he does tell them where to find it.
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Sun, 2015-01-11 01:42
Loosh and Philadelphy live in one of "the cabins" on the Sartoris plantation (34). The only time their cabin is mentioned is when, after the Yankees arrive at Sartoris, Bayard sees Loosh "coming up from his cabin" to leave with the soldiers (35).
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Sun, 2015-01-11 01:33
On their return journey to Sartoris in "Retreat" Bayard notes when they "pass the hole where Ringo and I learned to swim" (32, 70). This is undoubtedly a deep place on Hurricane Creek, and it's tempting to identify it with the spot in the creek where about 75 years later Narcissa Sartoris tries to wash away her sexual transgression, but Bayard's swimming hole must be visible from the road, and Narcissa's act requires secrecy. (See the index entry for "Hurricane Creek and Bottom.")
Submitted by jburgers@gc.cuny.edu on Sun, 2015-01-11 01:31
The location represents the events in the story after John Sartoris, Bayard, Ringo and the troop discover that Granny and the wagon have vanished. These events take place on one side or the other of the border between Tennessee and Mississippi. The most dramatic of these events occurs after a day and a night spent dodging Yankee troops: riding ahead of his men, John Sartoris rides into sixty Yankees eating beside a creek and captures them single-handed. This occurs a days' ride from the Sartoris place.
