Unnamed Dirt Farmers

In a passage added to the "Retreat" chapter of The Unvanquished, Bayard describes these poor whites as "the people whom the niggers called 'white trash'" - though he himself refers to them several times as "white trash" too (48-49). Their low status is defined in part by the fact that they "owned no slaves" (49). They farm "little patches of poor hill land" near the McCaslin place and in some cases "live worse than the slaves on the big plantation" (49). According to Bayard, they "look on Uncle Buck and Buddy like Deity Himself" (49). Some of them join Colonel John's first regiment and are responsible for his demotion.