The real city of Memphis, Tennessee, is the closest city to Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha, and it occurs frequently in his fiction. The "Appendix" mentions four different places in the city. "The Negro residence section" of Memphis is where Dilsey lives in the 1940s (336), and "Memphis's Beale Street," where Dilsey's son "TP" is depicted at the end, was well-known by the early 20th century for its nightlife (343). When Melissa Meek travels from Jefferson to Memphis, she arrives and departs from the "bus terminal" (337).
Cannebiere is the name of a historic street in the old quarter of Marseilles, France. By "a Cannebiere backdrop," the narrative probably refers not just to the "mountains" and the "sea," but also to the elegant life found there during the district's heyday between the two World Wars, when its cafes and hotels and boutiques were frequently by members of high society (334).
Located in southwestern Tennessee, Shiloh was the location of a major Civil War battle on April 6-7, 1862. On the second day it turned into a Confederate defeat, though there's no indication of how General Compson himself "failed" there (329).
Jason Compson travels to Yoknapatawpha from Kentucky along the "Natchez Trace" (328), a 440-mile trail originally created by the Indians between the sites of Nashville, Tennessee, and Natchez, Mississippi. It linked three rivers - the Cumberland, the Tennessee and the Mississippi - and passed through northeast Mississippi. In 18th and early 19th centures, it served as a major overland route for traders and settlers.
Much of the furniture inside the original Compson mansion was imported from France (328). Caddy Compson's last known address is also in France: she "vanished in Paris with the German occupation, 1940," during World War II (332); historically, the German army occupied Paris on 14 June 1940.
"The whole Mississippi Valley" (327) is the immense area drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Until 1803 much of this territory was claimed by Spain, which ceded it to France, which sold it to the U.S. as the Louisiana Purchase.
"Harrodsburg" (327) is the modern name of the town in north central Kentucky that was originally settled by James Harrod in 1774 and called Harrodstown. It is often referred to as the oldest permanent American settlement west of Appalachians. It is also, as the "Appendix" suggests, close to Boonesborough (326).
