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(MILITARY.) FLIPPER, HENRY OSSIAN.
Fourth Class Arranged
According to General Merit. Headquarters U.S. Military Academy, West Point,
N.Y., June 30, 1874.
Single 4to sheet with 89 names, of which Henry O Flipper is num-
ber 47. On the reverse, it is stated “By command of Colonel Ruger: [signature illegible]
Captain 10th Infantry, adjutant.”
West Point, 1874
[1,000/1,500]
A rare ledger page, grading the cadets of the Fourth Class at West Point in 1874. Flipper was
graded 47th of 89 in his class. Henry Ossian Flipper (1856-1940) was a former slave, and the
first African American to graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point in
1877, earning a commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army. Following his commission,
Flipper was transferred to the all black 10th Cavalry at Fort Sill in the Indian Territory—the
so-called Buffalo Soldiers. There, assigned to A Troop under the command of Captain Nicholas
M. Nolan, he became the first non-white officer to lead Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry.
Flipper served with distinction during the Apache Wars and the Victorio Campaign but there
were rumors alleging improprieties with the commanding officerís sister in law, Mollie Dwyer
with whom Flipper had become friendly. The two were often seen riding together and this was of
course interpreted as something else. While this could never be openly given as a reason for disci-
plinary action, things came to a head with an incident involving the moving of federal prisoners.
As a result of this, Flipper was made a scapegoat, court marshaled and dismissed from the US
Army. After losing his commission, Flipper worked throughout Mexico and Latin America as an
assistant to the Secretary of the Interior. He retired to Atlanta in 1931 and died of natural
causes in 1940. In 1976 his descendants applied to the US military for a review of Flipper’s
court martial and dismissal. A review found that the conviction and punishment were “unduly
harsh and unjust” and recommended that Flipperís dismissal be changed to a good conduct dis-
charge. Shortly afterwards, an application for pardon was filed with the Secretary of the Army
which was forwarded to the Department of Justice. President Bill Clinton pardoned Lieutenant
Henry O. Flipper on 19 February 1999.
427
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