Bedford Cunningham was a friend and co-worker of Jefferson Pinkard's in the Sloss Steel Foundry in Birmingham, Alabama. Cunningham was conscripted into the Confederate States Army during the Great War. He lost an arm in Kentucky and returned to Birmingham, where he was allowed to continue to live in his cottage. Cunningham began an affair with Emily Pinkard while Jeff was serving in Texas later in the war. Jeff discovered the two in bed when he returned home on furlough in 1916. Pinkard eventually forgave both Cunningham and Emily.