Ambuscade: Chapters 1-4 Summary

Civil War has come to Mississippi. Colonel John Sartoris, a Southern planter, has formed a regiment, his second one. As was common with Southern regiments, members of a regiment may expel their colonel by a vote, and this had occurred with John's first. He returns home, in order to oversee the building of a hidden pen for his stock, so that the few animals he owns will be hidden when the Yankee soldiers come. At home are Bayard, his young son, cared for by Rosa Millard, his mother-in-law. Bayard's mother died in childbirth. Also on the plantation are a number of Negro slaves whose family has been on this plantation for generations. A young Negro boy, Ringo, is the same age as Bayard, and they have grown together as brothers. Continuing to prepare for the potential of a Yankee...