The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

As he waits for Dr. Schofield to amputate his injured leg, Buddy McCallum recalls the time he was wounded during World War I: "there was a heap" of American soldiers lying "outside a field dressing station" waiting for medical attention (51).

Sheridan's calvary blocked the road from "Appomattox to the [Shenandoah] Valley" in April, 1865, forcing Lee to surrender (54).

While waiting on Dr. Schofield to amputate his leg, Buddy McCallum recalls another doctor and a more unbearable wait during the First World War. He remembers, "It took a long time for the doctor to get around to all of us, and by that time it was hurting bad." Presumably American and most certainly overworked, this doctor patiently treats the "heap" of injured soldiers "racked up along a bank outside a field dressing station" (51).

Neither Buddy's wife nor her parents appear directly in the story. Mr. Gombault notes that Buddy's wife isn't buried in the McCallum family graveyard: "Buddy's wife wanted to be buried with her folks. I reckon she would have been right lonesome up here with just McCallums" (60). This seems to reinforce the McCallum family's insular nature.

Neither Buddy's wife nor her parents appear directly in the story. Mr. Gombault notes that Buddy's wife isn't buried in the McCallum family graveyard: "Buddy's wife wanted to be buried with her folks. I reckon she would have been right lonesome up here with just McCallums" (60). This seems to reinforce the McCallum family's insular nature.

Gavin Stevens is one of Faulkner's favorite characters, and is elsewhere described as a Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. from Heidelberg who chooses to stay close to home, serving as the County Attorney for Yoknapatawpha in many of Faulkner's texts. In "The Tall Men" he is mentioned when the McCallums consult him for legal advice about the new federal cotton subsidy.

There are several references in "The Tall Men" to "county agents" in general. This is "the county agent's young fellow" who visits the McCallums periodically to explain the new federal programs that regulate agricultural production (57). He works for the federal government as part of the Roosevelt administration's efforts during the Depression to improve farm practices in places like the deep South. To the McCallums, this is the "the Government" that wants to "interfere with how a man farmed his own land" (55).