Flipper, Henry O. 1856–1940

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Henry O. Flipper 1856–1940

U.S. Army officer, engineer, translator, writer

Finally Cleared of All Charges in 1976

Henry O. Flipper was a quiet hero who led a proud and exemplary life full of achievements despite harsh circumstances. He had been born into slavery yet still attended a university, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and became an officer in the U.S. Army. He pursued a career as a civil and mining engineer, became an expert on Mexican land laws, and translated several books on law. Flipper is probably best remembered for wrongly receiving a dishonorable discharge from the army and subsequently fighting to exonerate himself. He was never able to clear the charges on his own, but thirty-five years after his death, others took up his cause and succeeded.

Flipper was born in Thomasville, Georgia, on March 21, 1856, less than a decade before the surrender of the Confederacy in 1865 brought an end to the Civil War and freed him and his family from slavery. His father, a skilled shoemaker and carriage trimmer, set up a successful business in Atlanta after the war and was able to afford private tutoring to educate his two sons.

In 1866 Flipper enrolled in schools established by the American Missionary Association, and in 1869 he began efforts, some did not. studying at Atlanta University. Three years later he applied for an appointment to West Point; he was accepted and entered in July of 1873 as the fifth Black cadet to enroll at the academy. His entrance did not go unnoticed: the Louisville Ledger, the Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia paper North American, and Washington, D.C.’s New National Era and Citizen all carried articles about him during his stay there. Depending on the bias of the paper, some supported his efforts, some did not.

In 1878, shortly after he graduated from West Point, Flipper wrote an account of his experiences there titled The Colored Cadet at West Point. In the book, he describes many sides of life at the academy—the courses of study, the daily schedule, as well as his treatment by and interaction with the officers and other cadets. Flipper went out of his way to report his experiences in a positive way. For any unpleasant treatment he received, he found reasons other than race as its cause. He wrote in his memoir: “Whenever I have been insulted, or anything has been done or said to me which might have that construction, I have endeavored to find some excuse, some reason for it, which was not founded on prejudice or on baseness of

At a Glance…

Born Henry Ossian Flipper, March 21, 1856, in Thomasville, GA; died May 3,1940; son of Festus (a shoemaker and carriage trimmer) and Isabella (Buckhalter) Flipper, Education: Attended Atlanta University; graduated from United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, 1877.

U.S. Army, 1877-81; became lieutenant; dishonorably discharged, 1881; charges reversed and name cleared, 1976. Engineer and writer. Sonora Land Company, Chicago, IL, chief engineer, 1886; opened civil and mining engineering office, Nogales, AZ, 1887; editor of the Nogales Sunday Herald,1889; Altar Land and Colonization Company, chief engineer, 1890-92; U.S. Justice Department Court of Private Land Claims, special agent, 1893-1901; Balvanera Mining Company, resident engineer, 1902-19; translator and interpreter for the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 1919-23; engineer with the Pantepec Oil Company, 1923-30.

Member: National Geographic Society, Southwest Society of the Archaeological institute of America, Association of Civil Engineers of Arizona.

character or any other ungentlemanly attribute; or, in other words, I wanted to prove that it was not done because of my color.”

Although he claimed in The Colored Cadet at West Point that the officers there treated him with “uniform courtesy and impartiality,” Flipper was nevertheless quite socially isolated because of his color. Apparently, he had been warned by another black cadet at the academy not to be too forward with his peers, so he kept to himself. His fellow students avoided him. While cadets sometimes started out acting friendly toward him, when they saw the ostracism practiced by others, they “discovered ere long that [they] too [were] prejudiced and thus one by one they cut me,” Flipper wrote.

When he graduated in 1877, Flipper not only became the first black to graduate from West Point, but also the first black to become an officer in the U.S. Army. He requested and received an assignment with the Buffalo Soldiers, one of two black cavalry regiments. His first two years went smoothly, and his commanding officer liked him and treated him well. Flipper was respected by his peers and worked successfully in his unit. One of his tasks as post engineer was to drain some stagnant pools that had been breeding grounds for malaria for years. The army had tried unsuccessfully to drain them twice before. He succeeded where others had failed. This project, known as Flipper’s Ditch, became a National Historic Landmark in 1977.

Unjust Accusations Ended Army Career

In late 1880 Flipper was assigned a new post under an officer who was known for his harsh treatment of junior officers. Within several months, money under Flipper’s care was found missing, and Flipper was blamed for its disappearance. In 1881, he was court-martialed. Although the court found him innocent of embezzlement, he was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer and was dismissed from the army. He left the military saddened but not embittered.

Outside the army, Flipper pursued a successful career as an engineer, surveyor, and translator in the southwestern United States. He began as a surveyor for American companies holding lands in Mexico. In 1886, he became chief engineer for the Sonora Land Company of Chicago, and by 1887 he had opened his own civil and mining engineer office in a border town in Arizona. From 1890 to 1892, he was chief engineer for the Altar Land and Colonization Company.

Because of his familiarity with Spanish and Mexican land and mining laws, Flipper served the next eight years as a special agent with the Court of Private Land Claims formed by the Justice Department. He researched and translated thousands of land-grant claims in Mexican archives and surveyed hundreds of acres over southern Arizona; his court testimony saved the property of many landowners in land-grant trials. One town was so grateful that it reportedly gave a victory banquet in his honor. In 1895 the U.S. government published his translation of Spanish and Mexican Land Laws.

When he completed his work for the land claims court in 1901, Flipper joined a mining company first in Mexico and then later in New Mexico as resident engineer. In the early 1920s, he worked for an oil company that was pioneering the oil industry in Venezuela. He retired in 1930 and returned to his family in Atlanta, where he died in 1940.

Henry Flipper’s first dream had been to become an officer in the U.S. Army. After his dishonorable discharge, his second dream was to clear his name and be reinstated. He followed this dream for the remainder of his adult life. In 1898, while working for the land claims court, he traveled to Washington D.C.; the first bill to have his court-martial reviewed was introduced that same year by Congressman Michael Griffen from Wisconsin. During the Spanish American War, Flipper offered his services to the military but was declined. He continued to travel every year to the capitol seeking restoration. Friends fought for him. Senator Albert Fall, who employed him as a translator in 1919, wrote emotional appeals to the Committee on Military Affairs. Even after retiring, Flipper persisted but was never able to clear his name.

Finally Cleared of All Charges in 1976

Flipper’s fight did not end with his death, however. Thirty-five years later, Ray MacColl, a teacher in Georgia, met Flipper’s niece, Irsle King, and together the two prepared a case to clear his name. After researching the case for six months, they enlisted the aid of attorney Roy Lilly, Jr. Their key argument was that if Flipper had been found innocent of embezzlement, he could not have been guilty of misconduct. In 1976, the case was reviewed by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records in Washington, D.C., and the charges were reversed. Ninety-five years after his dishonorable discharge, Henry O. Flipper received an honorable discharge.

Flipper deserved and received more than just a clean record. One year after his name was cleared by army, Flipper’s Ditch became a National Landmark. In 1978 his body was moved from Atlanta to his hometown of Thomasville, where he received a full military funeral; almost 500 people, including military and governmental officials, attended. In 1989 a memorial marker was unveiled at his grave. Two years later, ground was broken in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for a monument to his Buffalo Soldiers. More than forty years after his death, Flipper had finally received the regard and respect he was due.