In Flags in the Dust, Joan is Belle Mitchell's younger sister who comes to Jefferson while Belle is away getting a divorce, to see what Horace Benbow is like; during the week she spends in town she and Horace have an affair. By the time she gets to Jefferson she has had a wide experience, both of the world (having lived in Hawaii, Australia and India, among other unnamed "random points half the world apart," 322) and of men (having been married a least twice and lived with at least one other man).
In Flags in the Dust he is one of the blacks who sharecrops on the Sartoris estate; he does not appear in the novel, but the possum hunt that Bayard and Narcissa go on with Caspey and Isom begins behind his cabin.
First described by the narrator of Flags in the Dust as a "young light negress" (27), Meloney is later referred to by Jenny Du Pre as a "mulatto girl" (394). She is Belle Mitchell's servant when the novel begins, but soon goes into business for herself as a beautician with the money that Simon embezzles from the Second Baptist Church. At the end of the novel Simon is found murdered in her cabin.
In Flags in the Dust Gratton is a short-tempered veteran of World War I, introduced by Eustace Graham as a man who was "up on the British front last spring" (125). The narrator refers to him as "the stranger," meaning that he is not from Yoknapatawpha (125)..
In Flags in the Dust Fothergill is a member of Colonel John Sartoris' irregular unit, with a special ability to get behind Union lines and come back with at least one horse. He and the Colonel are horse racing when Sartoris surprises and captures the company of Yankee cavalry.
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).
In Flags in the Dust Eunice is the Benbows' cook. She expresses a sort of maternal concern about Horace's welfare. Narcissa tells her that "Nobody can make chocolate pies like yours" (309).
"Vardaman" is mentioned twice in Flags in the Dust, once by Aunt Jenny and once by Deacon Rogers (62, 122). Both of them express admiration for his character and politics. Known as "The Great White Chief," James K. Vardaman served one term as Governor of Mississippi (1904-1908) and one term in the United States Senate (1913-1919). A militant segregationist, he vowed to lynch every African American in the state if that ever became necessary. He opposed U.S.
"Hal Wagner" is one of the two characters whom Byron Snopes invents in Flags in the Dust in his attempt to deceive Virgil Beard about the nature of the anonymous letters he is sending Narcissa (109).
