Unnamed Father of Fonsiba's Husband

The father of the unnamed Negro who marries Fonsiba is only mentioned in passing in Go Down, Moses, but occupies a significant place in the Yoknapatawpha fiction as an African American who served in the Union army. There were in historical fact almost 180,000 'Colored troops' during the Civil War, serving in both non-combat and combat roles, but until recently these men were largely invisible in American representations of that war. This man is the only black "Yankee" soldier in Faulkner's work (261). He was enslaved before the war; after it he received a "grant" for his "military service" that is his legacy to his son (261).