Character guide

Jack Ellyat

major

Also known as Ellyat, Johnny

A Connecticut farm boy turned Union soldier who carries the muddy, homesick tune of a divided country into Grant's army and beyond.

John Brown

major

Also known as Brown, Old John Brown

The fierce, Bible-quoting abolitionist whose raid and execution become the moral lightning rod that splits America's conscience in two.

Spade

supporting

Also known as Mr. Spade, Mistah Spade, Mister Spade

A Black presence moving through the margins of a slave ship's world, whose unheard prayers and songs shadow the captain's self-justifying theology.

Melora Vilas

supporting

Also known as Melora

A young Northern woman whose romance with Jack Ellyat offers tenderness and a human counterweight to the war's grinding machinery.

Luke Breckinridge

supporting

Also known as Luke Breckenridge

A Confederate scout whose Southern loyalties and rough frontier instincts thread through the war's Western and borderland campaigns.

Lucy Weatherby

supporting

Also known as Weatherby

A Southern belle whose charm and social grace mask the brittle codes of honor and courtship that shape the Wingate family's world.

Sally Dupré

supporting

Also known as Sally, Miss Sally Dupré

Sally Dupré moves through the domestic South — running home to hide her face in her mother's apron, then sitting in a Richmond square as a lady beside a working-girl, their low voices fretting over food and prices. The war presses in on her from both ends: the dreadful thing she saw as a girl, and the hunger she shares with strangers. She matters because Benét uses her to show how the war reaches even the sheltered — the buttercups and the bare bone of an arm in the same breath.

Shippy

minor

Also known as Reckless Shippy

A minor character, possibly a soldier or local, known for reckless behavior.

Clay Wingate

major

Also known as Wingate, Clay

Clay Wingate belongs to Wingate Hall, the plantation world of Mary Lou and the Wingate children, and to the generation that rides out when the war comes. His inheritance is a whole way of life — gracious, brittle, built on a wrong that the poem refuses to let him escape. Through him Benét tracks what the war costs the young men who believed in it, and what it leaves of the world that made them.

Phil Ferrier

supporting

Also known as Phil

Phil Ferrier lives in the war's odd fraternities: toy boats on a muddy river, a Northern lieutenant swimming to a Southern dance and back before battle, a grey private salvaging a chaplain's hat while Yankee sentries hold their fire. Around him the siege of Petersburg starves the cats and the wharves grow over with grass. He matters because Benét uses him to hold both sides of the war in one hand — the jokes, the sharpshooters, the desolation — without letting either become a cartoon.

Ned

minor

Also known as Edmund Ruffin

An elderly Southern fire-eater and secessionist, appears in historical scenes.

Sophy

minor

An enslaved or free Black woman, possibly connected to the Wingate household.

Mollie Wingate

supporting

Also known as Bell, Mary Lou Wingate, Louisa

Mollie Wingate raised Marse Billy when he was puny and cared for the Squire when he got loony; she has closed the children's eyes when they lay dead, and the white-skinned ones are bone of her bone though she is legally neither mother nor kin. She is half a nuisance and half a mother, the family-despot and the slave, and Benét calls her a curious blossom from bitter ground. She matters because she is one of the three stout pillars holding up Wingate Hall — and because the poem refuses to let her kindness and her chains be separated.

Cudjo

minor

An enslaved Black man on the Wingate plantation, appears in domestic scenes.

Zachary

minor

Also known as ole man Zachary

An older Black man, possibly a former slave or servant.

Mr. Bristol

minor

Also known as Bristol, Wainscott Bristol

A Northern businessman or politician, appears in civilian contexts.

Elspeth Mackay

minor

Also known as Elspeth

A Scottish-descended woman, possibly a love interest or family figure.

Old Mistis

minor

Also known as ole Mistis, Mistis

The elderly mistress of the Wingate plantation.

Jim Merrihew

minor

Also known as Jim

A Union soldier, comrade of Jack Ellyat.

Huger Shepley

minor

Also known as Shepley

A Southern gentleman or officer, part of the aristocratic circle.

Aunt Bess

minor

Also known as Fat Aunt Bess

An enslaved cook or domestic worker on the Wingate plantation.

John Wingate

supporting

Also known as honest John, the Wingate

John Wingate is the Wingate of Wingate Hall — the name the family answers to, the man whose household Mary Lou runs with her tiny, rapier-strong hands. He belongs to the planter class Benét describes as generous slaveholders and gentlemen who neither force their gentility nor let it be held lightly. He matters because the Wingate world — its pillars, its traditions, its contradictions — is the South the poem loves and indicts, and he is its head.

Watson Brown

minor

Also known as Brown

One of John Brown's sons, killed at Harpers Ferry.

Will

minor

Also known as Old Marse Billy, Marse Billy

An older enslaved man on the Wingate plantation.

Nancy Huguenot

minor

Also known as Nancy

A Southern woman, possibly a friend of the Wingate family.

Shepherd Heyward

minor

Also known as Heyward

A Southern officer or gentleman, part of the military narrative.

Jake Diefer

minor

Also known as Jake

A German-American soldier or immigrant character in the Union ranks.

Curly Hatton

minor

Also known as Curly

A young man from the South, possibly a soldier or suitor.

Patrick Higgins

minor

Also known as Higgins

An Irish-American soldier in the Union army.

Miss Harriet

minor

Also known as Harriet

A Northern woman, possibly a teacher or abolitionist.

John Vilas

minor

Melora's father or relative, a Northern farmer or tradesman.

Mr. Brua

minor

Also known as A Mr. Brua

A mysterious figure, possibly a spy or agent, appears briefly.

Mr. Clarke

minor

Also known as Clark

A Northern officer or official, appears in military contexts.

Henry Fairfield

minor

Also known as Hank

A Union soldier, friend of Jack Ellyat.

Harry Spode

minor

Also known as Henry

A minor character, possibly a soldier or civilian.

Young Marse Clay

minor

Also known as Marse Clay, Young

Clay Wingate as a young master, addressed by enslaved characters.

Miss Amanda

minor

Also known as Amanda

A Northern woman, possibly a relative or friend of the Vilas family.

Howard Brooke

minor

Also known as Howard

A Union officer, appears in battle scenes.

Old Judge Brooke

minor

Also known as old Judge Brooke

An elderly Northern judge or civic figure.

Mr. Pollet

minor

Also known as Pollet

A minor character, possibly a shopkeeper or civilian.

Mother Bickerdyke

minor

Also known as Mother, Old Mother Bickerdyke

A historical Union nurse, appears briefly in hospital scenes.

Ellen Baker

minor

Also known as Nelly

A Northern woman, possibly a love interest or family member.

Uncle Paul

minor

Also known as old Uncle Paul

An elderly enslaved man on the Wingate plantation.

Mr. Wingate

minor

John Wingate, the patriarch of the Wingate family.

Jim Wheeler

minor

Also known as Jim

A minor character, possibly a soldier or laborer.

French Dupré

minor

A Southern man, possibly Sally's father or relative.

Miss Louisa

minor

Also known as Louisa

A Southern woman, possibly a friend of the Wingate family.

Sue Appleton

minor

Also known as Sue

A Northern woman, appears in civilian contexts.

Mrs. Spade

minor

Spade's wife, appears briefly in domestic scenes.

Billy Herndon

minor

Also known as Old Billy Herndon

A minor character, possibly a soldier or local figure.

Mr. Braid

minor

Also known as Braid

A minor character, possibly a tradesman or officer.

Massa

minor

Generic term used by enslaved characters for their master.