Manfred de Spain

Manfred de Spain is "the son of a Confederate cavarly officer" and a graduate of the military academy at West Point (142). He served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War as a lower-ranking officer, but he inherited his title of "Major de Spain" as a kind of courtesy title from his father, who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. After his service in Cuba, this "Major" returns home to become the mayor of Jefferson and the president of the new bank, and to own one of the first two cars in Jefferson, a "red racer" (p. 37). He also has a protracted affair with Flem's wife, Eula Varner Snopes, which involves him in an intense rivalry with Gavin Stevens - the affair and the rivalry are major narrative elements in the earlier novel The Town.