Grumby's Gang

The gang that rides with Grumby in two of the Unvanquished stories - "The Unvanquished" and "Vendee" - takes advantage of the lawless conditions in the region during the later years of the Civil War to pillage, terrorize and murder, without regard to race or gender, the civilians who have remained at home while the white male population is off at the fighting. Two of them - Bowden and Bridger - are given names in the story. It is not clear how many others there are. In "The Unvanquished" Bayard writes that there are "about fifty or sixty" men in the gang (93). In "Vendee" however, when Ringo spies them in a dark house, he sees "three or thirteen men" (103); when Bayard, Ringo and Buck McCaslin later count the hoof prints of the horses the gang are riding, there are "five" (107). The Unvanquished simply repeats these inconsistent numbers (150, 165, 171).