Today the calender offers us a number of wide ranging topics to cover. On this day in 1945, nearly 30,000 Marines stormed a spit of volcanic rock known as Iwo Jima. Two years earlier, American soldiers first encountered German panzers in a small mountain pass near Kasserine, Tunisia, and were thrown back 50 miles. And, way back in 1674, the English and Dutch signed a treaty transferring possession of a small North American settlement known as New Amsterdam.
USMA portrait of Henry O. Flipper. In 1877, he became the first African-American cadet to graduate from West Point.
Nevertheless, we turn instead to another one of those personal stories that reflect so largely on men and nations as a whole. Born into slavery in Georgia in 1856, the cards seemed stacked against Henry Ossian Flipper from the start. Yet after the war he enrolled in Atlanta University, and reached out to a congressman for an appointment to the United States Military Academy. In 1877, Flipper became the first black cadet to graduate from West Point.
Assigned to the 10th Cavalry of the "Buffalo Soldiers," Flipper was the first African-American to command a unit of army regulars. His thoroughness and skill as an engineer shone through, and Flipper endeared himself to Captain Nicholas M. Nolan, his troop commander. For his part, the young lieutenant developed a bond with Mollie Dwyer, the sister of Nolan's wife. Sadly, fraternization with a white woman by a black man, even a competent Army officer, was still considered a grave taboo.
Lieutenant Flipper, sometime before his arrest. He proved his skills as an engineer when he drained the malarial swamps that surrounded his first post, Fort Sill, modern-day Oklahoma.
While it may have aroused suspicion and anger, Flipper's relationship with Dwyer did little to diminish his military success. He served with distinction during the Apache Wars, but afterward his duty separated him from Nolan, his friend and mentor. In 1881, at Fort Davis, Texas, Flipper came under the command of Colonel William R. Shafter, a man with no love loss for the black officer. Shafter immediately relieved Flipper from his position as quartermaster, setting the stage his downfall.
Sometime after Shafter took command, he ordered Flipper to keep a safe with the post's funds in his quarters. Flipper obliged, but soon noticed that over $2,000 was missing from the safe, and attempted to hide the discrepancy until the money could be found. Fearing the missing cash could be used to force him out of the army, Flipper even lied to Shafter about the incident. He was arrested, and although he was acquitted of embezzlement, he was dismissed from the Army for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman."
Flipper was shamed, to be sure, but spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name. At the time, the decision was upheld by President Chester A. Arthur, but in 1976, the Army reviewed the case and ruled the sentence had been too harsh. White officers who had committed worse crimes had not been so disciplined, and Flipper was awarded an honorable discharge. On February 19, 1999, almost 120 years after he was arrested, Flipper was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton.
Flipper before his death. After his discharge, Flipper continued his work as an engineer while trying to clear his name.
The story of Flipper, by all accounts a capable soldier, serves only to illustrate the racial issues that plagued not only American armed services, but the nation as a whole. The only black officer in the Army at the time, many felt Flipper had been railroaded by Shafter, but few spoke out against his arrest. Once again, the United State government was forced to atone for past offenses, but as usual it was too little, too late. Flipper died in 1940, with the Army still segregated, not knowing if his honor or rank would ever be restored.
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