Unnamed Union General 1

Two of The Unvanquished stories refer to but don't name a Union general in command of the forces in the area of Yoknapatawpha. In "Ambuscade" this general is mentioned by Sergeant Harrison, who heard "the general" in command of the larger unit to which his cavalry troop belongs say that "if he had enough horses, he wouldn’t always care whether there was anybody to ride them or not" (13, 30). In "Raid," where the troops are identified as the "-th Army Corps, Department of Tennessee" (54, 112), it is this general's signature the requisition form that results in Rosa Millard going back to Mississippi with a lot more silver, mules and Negroes than she expected. Historically, as Faulkner might have expected his readers to know, the Army of Tennessee was commanded first by Ulysses S. Grant and then (after the fall of Vicksburg) by William T. Sherman. Grant is mentioned several times in these texts. Sherman's name appears in "Raid" (45), and he was the leader associated with the kind of "total war" that would account for all the burned plantations along Rosa's route, although he did not wage that kind of campaign until after leaving Mississippi. Faulkner could have been thinking of either one of these generals as this unnamed general - or of no particular general at all.