Who is Colonel Sartoris?

In William Faulkner's Light in August, Joanna Burden names Colonel Sartoris as the killer of her grandfather and brother. This isn't the first time our class has encountered Sartoris. Colonel Sartoris Snopes, the protagonist of "Barn Burning," also by Faulkner, is named for this character. 

The extent of the original Sartoris' role in "Barn Burning" is limited to the justice's remark in the beginning of the story: "I reckon anybody named for Colonel Sartoris in this country can't help but tell the truth, can they?" In Faulkner's other works, notably the novel Sartoris, however, Colonel Sartoris plays a larger role.

I did a little research on Colonel John Sartoris and found out that Faulkner based this character on his grandfather, a Civil War colonel in the Confederate Army. Sartoris is a distinguished, respected Southern man, a reputation that is evident in the justice's words in "Barn Burning." Furthermore, his allegiance with the Confederate South is consistent with his killing of Miss Burden's ancestors, who are implied to be Northerners who moved South during Reconstruction. 

Faulkner's works share a common setting and characters, as Mr. Heidkamp mentioned.  Colonel Sartoris is an example of one of these connections in the two works of Faulkner that our class has read this year. Faulkner uses these shared characters and events to incorporate antebellum Southern society and his own Southern roots into his writing.