U.S.-Mexico Border (Location Key)

In Sanctuary Lee Goodwin tells Horace that in the past he had been a cavalry sergeant "on the Border" (109). The border is undoubtedly the one between the U.S. and Mexico. In response to the Mexican Revolution in the second decade of the 20th century, the U.S. Army fortified a number of positions along that boundary line, and beginning in 1914 there was open military conflict between forces on the two sides of it. Battles and skirmishes were fought at many different points along the entire border, so we can't say exactly where Lee served - but there's no reason to doubt that he did. On the other hand, it would almost certainly be a mistake to believe the character who calls himself Captain Strutterbuck when he tells Montgomery Ward Snopes in The Mansion that his military experiences include fighting under General "Black Jack" Pershing "on the Border in '16" (84). Pershing did lead 10,000 American troops into Mexico to try to capture Pancho Villa in 1916, but Strutterbuck's whole account of his career in the Army almost certainly is a fiction.