Will Falls

Flags in the Dust begins with "old man Falls" (3). During the Civil War, Will Falls served with Colonel John Sartoris' irregular outfit. The stories he tells Old Bayard about that past serve to fetch "the spirit of the dead man" into the novel's post World War I present (3), and the old Choctaw salve with which he successfully treats Bayard's wen reinforces the role he plays as a connection to the old South. He lives frugally in the county poor farm, regularly walks the three miles into town, and his "faded overalls" give off a "clean dusty smell" (3).