Today, February 10, 2023, Lyles Station Historic Schoolhouse and Museum recognizes the accomplishments of Henry Ossian Flipper, a young man born a slave in Georgia in 1856 who became the first African American cadet to graduate from West Point Military Academy in 1877.
Flipper joined four other Black cadets at West Point, yet he was the only one of the group who persevered and graduated, with the others falling victim to prejudice and discrimination.
Flipper earned above-average grades while at West Point but was isolated by his classmates who merely tolerated his presence. He arrived at West Point expecting to be mistreated and mentally prepared himself for the worst. To his relief, the white cadets left him alone, having vented their prejudice on the other cadets.
Following his graduation, Flipper earned his commission in the U.S. Army cavalry as a second lieutenant assigned to the 10th Cavalry Regiment which comprised one of the four “buffalo soldier” regiments in the Army. He and his unit were stationed on the frontier in Indian Territory, what is now Oklahoma. Until Flipper’s arrival, the buffalo soldiers were always commanded by white officers, with the Army unwilling to place a black officer in command. Flipper became the first Black officer to command regular troops in the Army. His experiences at Fort Sill prepared him for his later career as an expert surveyor, mapmaker, and civil and mining engineer.
He personally surveyed the route for the road running from Fort Sill to Gainesville, Texas, as well as supervising its construction. The frontier needed communication, and Flipper constructed the telegraph lines running from Fort Elliott, Texas, to Fort Supply. Malaria could stop an army in its tracks, and a malaria plagued swamp was taking its toll on Fort Sill. Flipper designed and constructed a drainage channel system, later named “Flipper’s Ditch,” which eliminated the problem, saving hundreds of lives and which still controls erosion and floods in the area.
Flipper was responsible as a post signal officer for drilling both white and black troops in order to improve their signaling techniques.
In addition to his many military duties and accomplishments while he was stationed at Fort Sill, Flipper also wrote his first memoir, The Colored Cadet at West Point, described as "one of the earliest authentic black autobiographies in American literary history. It remains our most informative and detailed chronicle of cadet education, customs, social life, and race relations at West Point during the 1870s."
However, trouble was waiting for him at Fort Concho and Fort Davis. Captain Nolan, his commanding officer at Fort Concho, appointed Flipper his adjutant and invited him to board with his family and dine with them in their home. Worse yet, Flipper and Nolan’s sister-in-law, Mollie Dwyer, became friends and often went horseback riding together and exchanged letters. At that time, whites and blacks were strictly forbidden to engage in any type of relationship, according to the officers of the board.
Flipper was next assigned to Fort Davis in Texas as post quartermaster and commissary officer. The fort commander, Col. William Shafter, dismissed Flipper from the quartermaster job within days of his arrival, simply because he did not want black soldiers serving as officers.
Shafter brought up charges against Flipper of embezzlement of commissary funds and “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.” Lieutenant Flipper pled not guilty to both charges, and while found not guilty of embezzlement was convicted for making false statements and for unbecoming conduct. Flipper spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name. In spite of Shafter’s attempt to ruin him, Flipper led a distinguished and respected life after the sham court martial.
After his dismissal from the Army, Flipper remained in the Southwest, working in Mexico and Latin America. The United States’ first African American civil and mining engineer, he put his surveying skills to use and established his own civil engineering office in Arizona, then worked for the U. S. Department of Justice, translating Spanish documents, serving as a special agent for the Court of Private Land Claims, appearing as a government witness in court cases, and serving as a resident engineer for a Mexican mining company. In 1919, he served as a translator and interpreter for a Senate subcommittee on foreign relations, followed by a stint with the Secretary of the Interior serving as a special assistant and in Washington, D. C. as consultant to the Senate committee on Mexican relations. Flipper’s post military service far outshines that of Shafter who sought to denigrate him and demonstrates his honorable conduct and reputation.
In 1921, he was hired as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior working in the Alaskan Engineering Commission. From Alaska he went to work for William F. Buckley in 1923 as an engineer in Venezuela.