Renaming Fort Benning in honor of Lieut. Henry O. Flipper
Re: On Renaming Fort Benning in honor of Lieut. Henry O. Flipper
A lot has been written about renaming Confederate-named military basis after deserving military heroes. The federal government embraced pillars of the white supremacist movement when it named military bases in the South. There is an overwhelming consensus that renaming those bases is necessary to address such racism and to acknowledge that our modern armed forces are more inclusive and inviting of African Americans and other minorities.
Ty Seidule, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, wrote in an eloquent Washington Post Op-Ed that Army posts named for men who fought for the Confederate States of America honor men who committed treason to create a country dedicated to human enslavement. He proposed honoring a few Army heroes, drawing on soldiers who represent the strength, values, and diversity of the Army’s storied history.
In a recent reversal of the Army’s previous position, spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky’s released a statement that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy is now "open" to a bi-partisan discussion renaming the service's bases and facilities named after Confederate leaders. Defense Secretary Mark Esper also supports such discussion.
There have been a few suggestions of which soldiers to honor. Fort Benning should be renamed in honor of Lieut. Henry Flipper.
Fort Benning honors the Confederate general, Henry Lewis Benning, who devoted himself to the premise that coloreds were not human and could never be trusted with full citizenship. Benning was one of the Confederate’s most forceful advocates of secession to protect States’ right to own slaves. Benning warned that the abolition of slavery would one day lead to the horror of “black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything.” Abolition, he said, would place white womanhood at the mercy of negros, with the same rights as white people. “We will be completely exterminated…and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back into a wilderness.”
Lieut. Flipper has strong ties to Georgia. He was born a slave on March 21, 1856, in Thomasville, Georgia, 146 miles from Fort Benning. He was raised mostly in Thomasville and Atlanta and went to the newly established Atlanta University. Flipper retired in Atlanta and is buried in Thomasville.
Henry Ossian Flipper was born less than a decade before the end of the Civil War that freed him and his family from slavery. His father was a skilled shoemaker and carriage trimmer who set up business in Atlanta after the war, enabling him to afford private tutoring to educate his two sons.
In July of 1873, Flipper applied to West Point and became the fifth black cadet to enroll at the Academy. Conditions were less than ideal, as he was ostracized, shunned, and frequently insulted by his fellow plebes and cadets, from the moment that he stepped on its grounds. As a result, Flipper lived a relatively solitary existence at West Point. The senior cadets imposed a code of silence and warned the junior cadets and plebes against associating with Flipper. The few Flipper ‘sympathizers’ complied with the code to avoid the same treatment forced on Flipper.
Flipper lived alone for his much of his time at West Point (except when he roomed with other black cadets). The other five black cadets entering West Point before Flipper did not make it to graduation—some succumbed to the harsh treatment and racism; others failed the rigorous exams. Still, despite the challenges, Flipper preserved, and in 1877, he became the first black graduate of West Point Academy. When Flipper stepped on the stage as he collected his diploma, the other West Point cadets and dignitaries voiced their recognition of his formidable achievements by giving him rousing ovation—he was the only cadet to receive one. Flipper wrote a book based on his experiences, titled, The Colored Cadet at West Point. In the book, Flipper went out of his way to remain positive, never blaming any of the unfavorable treatment he encountered “based on my color.” He was proud of his accomplishments at West Point and was ready to serve his country.
After graduation Flipper was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry, one of the few all-black regiments, commonly known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.” Flipper was assigned to 'A' Troop under the command of Captain Nicholas M. Nolan, where he became the first nonwhite officer in history to lead his unit of soldiers.
From 1878 until 1880, Lieutenant Flipper served on frontier duty in various installations in the Southwest, including Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This was during a time when the “Wild West” territories and states were being ‘tamed’ of lawlessness, and Native American tribes were being pushed onto reservations or non-occupied territories. While Flipper was involved and served with distinction during the Apache Wars and the Victorio Campaign, his primary duties included scouting, and serving as his post’s surveyor, engineer, construction supervisor, post quartermaster, and commissary officer. He also supervised the construction of roads and telegraph lines.
One of Flipper’s assigned tasks was to drain some stagnant pools that had turned into breeding grounds for deadly malaria that was spreading throughout the Fort and the neighboring areas. The Army had failed twice before to drain the area. Flipper utilized his civil engineering skills, learned at West Point, to design a ditch that properly drained the area and solved the malaria crisis. Flipper’s ditch design created the optical illusion that the water traveled uphill. Initially, the other soldiers and his superiors doubted that Flipper’s feat of engineering would work, and they besmirched his efforts by calling the trough “Flipper’s Folly.” But the Army has since named it “Flipper’s Ditch.”, and the still working ditch is now a National Historic Landmark.
In 1879, Captain Nolan brought his wife, Anne Eleanor Dwyer, and sister-in-law, Miss Mollie Dwyer, to Fort Elliott in Texas, where Flipper was stationed. Nolan was the de facto commander of Fort Elliott, and he made Flipper his assistant officer. Flipper was a frequent guest at the Nolan’s dinner table, and Mollie Dwyer and Flipper soon became friends and often went riding together. However, rumors and letters hinted at improprieties against Flipper, an African American, and Dwyer, a Caucasian. Relationships between whites and blacks were strictly forbidden from the viewpoint of the white officers and soldiers. There was talk of fellow officers starting a smear campaign at the base.
Flipper’s unit was re-assigned to Fort Davis, in Texas, under Colonel William Rufus Shafter. Shafter had a reputation for his rough treatment of junior officers, particularly those he did not like. Flipper was assigned the task of managing the post’s commissary and transacting with local merchants. For some reason, instead of using the commissary safe, Flipper kept the proceeds of the commissary and merchant transactions in a locked trunk in his officer’s residence. A few months later, Flipper noticed a discrepancy between the amount of cash and checks in his possession and the amount in his ledgers.
Flipper suspected that the shortage could be used against him by officers intent on forcing him out of the Army, and he was concerned about incurring Shafter’s wrath, so Flipper hid the discrepancies. When Shafter got suspicious, he questioned Flipper, and Flipper repeatedly dodged the truth about the shortage, hoping to make up the discrepancy from his own wages and other payments that were coming due. Once the shortfall was discovered, Shafter wrongly accused Flipper of attempting to flee the base with the money and had him arrested for embezzling government funds. Shafter ordered Flipper confined to an inhuman stockade that was used to jail non-officers. Word quickly spread on and off the base about the missing money. Many felt it was a setup, and merchants in the local community came up with the money to replace what was missing. Shafter accepted the cash, then convened a court-martial.
The charges included embezzling funds and several charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. At trial, Flipper was acquitted of the embezzlement charge but was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for making false statements to Shafter, for signing financial records he knew to be incorrect, and for writing a check on a nonexistent bank account. On June 30, 1882, Flipper was dismissed from the Army, as was required by his conviction.
In reviewing the trial, the Judge Advocate General, the Army’s chief legal officer, recommended a lesser punishment other than dismissal—based, in part on a review of similar convictions of white officers. However, President Chester Arthur upheld the court-martial sentence for political reasons.
Afterward, Flipper set out to establish himself in civilian life and enjoyed a successful career as an engineer, surveyor, and translator for private companies and the Federal government throughout the southwestern United States. Flipper became a recognized expert regarding Spanish and Mexican land mining laws. His post-military accomplishments would be considered amazing over-achievements, and they certainly would have, even for a Caucasian who did not have to contend with the bigotry and racism that Flipper experienced.
Henry Flipper went on to distinguish himself in a variety of governmental and private engineering positions. These included serving as surveyor, civil and military engineer, author, translator, special agent of the Justice Department, as well as an authority on territorial, Mexican, and Venezuelan land and mining laws. He was frequently consulted as an expert on these subjects, and he became an interpreter of Mexican law and Spanish translator for a Senate subcommittee studying the impact of the Mexican Revolution on American economic interests. Flipper spent time in Mexico, at times consulting the Mexican government, and on returning to the United States, he served as an adviser to Senator Albert Fall on Mexican politics. When Senator Fall became Secretary of the Interior in 1921, he brought Flipper with him to Washington, D.C., to serve as his special assistant. From 1893 to 1901, he worked for the U. S. Department of Justice as a special agent for the Court of Private Land Claims, where he researched and helped adjudicate cases between disputing land claimants. In addition to his job translating Spanish documents, he surveyed land grants and often appeared as a government witness, including in cases involving him appearing in front of the United States Supreme Court.
Flipper was a prolific author, writing five books, including about scientific topics and the history of the Southwest. His first publication was an autobiography, The Colored Cadet at West Point . His posthumous memoir, Black Frontiersman: The Memoir of Henry O. Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point, detailed his life as a Buffalo Soldier and frontiersman. His other works included Spanish and Mexican Land Laws: New Spain and Mexico. Flipper was also the first black editor of an all-white newspaper.
Throughout the balance of his life, Henry Flipper maintained that he was innocent of the charges that that warranted his dismissal from the Army. Flipper made numerous attempts to have his conviction reversed and to be reinstated to his commission as an officer. He made frequent trips to Washington DC in that quest. Friends and fellow officers testified in supported his efforts and congressman spoke on his behalf, all to no avail. His Congressional supporters in The House of Representatives introduced legislation, in a failed attempt to reinstate his commission.
Lieut. Henry O. Flipper eventually retired in 1934, during the Great Depression, after his unsuccessful attempts to find civilian or government employment that valued his unique expertise. Flipper did not possess any savings, so he moved in with Atlanta relatives, where he lived the last years of his life in a mostly solitary existence. Flipper died as a pauper at age 84 with the stain of his Court-Marshal and conviction remaining on his reputation. On May 5, 1940, Flipper was found dead of a heart attack in his bedroom and was buried in a segregated cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Thirty-six years after his death, his descendants and supporters applied to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records on behalf of Lieut. Flipper. The Board acknowledged that Flipper had falsified reports and lied to his commanding officer, nevertheless, it concluded that “the continuance of the stigma from a dismissal, which characterizes his entire service as dishonorable, is unduly harsh, and therefore unjust.” and recommended that Flipper's dismissal commuted to a good conduct discharge. The Assistant Secretary of the Army and The Adjutant General approved the Board's findings and directed that the Department of the Army overturn Flipper’s dismissal and give him a Certificate of Honorable Discharge, retroactive to June 30, 1882, 96 years after his dismissal from the Army.
After Flipper was granted a posthumous honorable discharge, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Old Magnolia Cemetery in Thomasville. Flipper’s body was carried to his new gravesite in a mule-drawn wagon with a rider less horse, attended by a crowd estimated to be around 500, with family members and dignitaries from the U.S. Army, West Point, and the Georgia government who followed an honor guard from Fort Benning and which featured a 21-gun salute.
Despite his retroactive honorable discharge, Flipper’s conviction remained on his record. On October 21, 1997, Arnold & Porter, a highly regarded D.C. law firm, filed an application of pardon with the Secretary of the Army on Lieutenant Flipper's behalf. The application was forwarded to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice, with a recommendation that the pardon be approved. The Pardon petition faced an uphill battle as in the history of the United States, Presidential pardons had never been posthumously granted. However, a team of attorneys at Arnold & Porter launched a persuasive argument and, as a result, on February 19, 1999 President William Jefferson Clinton pardoned Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper in a White House ceremony attended by Flipper’s descendants and military dignitaries. Flipper was the first American in history to be posthumously pardoned. In pardoning Flipper, the President recognized an error in his treatment and acknowledged his lifetime accomplishments. The event came 59 years after his death and 117 years after the young lieutenant had been dismissed from the United States Army.
Every year, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point honors a cadet who succeeds in the face of great hardship. The award is named for Lieut. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of the Academy, as well as the first black to become an officer in the U.S. Army. Lieut. Flipper represents the strength, values, and diversity of African American military heroes and uniquely, is the only former slave being considered for the honor.
A lot has been written about renaming Confederate-named military basis after deserving military heroes. The federal government embraced pillars of the white supremacist movement when it named military bases in the South. There is an overwhelming consensus that renaming those bases is necessary to address such racism and to acknowledge that our modern armed forces are more inclusive and inviting of African Americans and other minorities.
Ty Seidule, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, wrote in an eloquent Washington Post Op-Ed that Army posts named for men who fought for the Confederate States of America honor men who committed treason to create a country dedicated to human enslavement. He proposed honoring a few Army heroes, drawing on soldiers who represent the strength, values, and diversity of the Army’s storied history.
In a recent reversal of the Army’s previous position, spokesperson Col. Sunset Belinsky’s released a statement that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy is now "open" to a bi-partisan discussion renaming the service's bases and facilities named after Confederate leaders. Defense Secretary Mark Esper also supports such discussion.
There have been a few suggestions of which soldiers to honor. Fort Benning should be renamed in honor of Lieut. Henry Flipper.
Fort Benning honors the Confederate general, Henry Lewis Benning, who devoted himself to the premise that coloreds were not human and could never be trusted with full citizenship. Benning was one of the Confederate’s most forceful advocates of secession to protect States’ right to own slaves. Benning warned that the abolition of slavery would one day lead to the horror of “black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything.” Abolition, he said, would place white womanhood at the mercy of negros, with the same rights as white people. “We will be completely exterminated…and the land will be left in the possession of the blacks, and then it will go back into a wilderness.”
Lieut. Flipper has strong ties to Georgia. He was born a slave on March 21, 1856, in Thomasville, Georgia, 146 miles from Fort Benning. He was raised mostly in Thomasville and Atlanta and went to the newly established Atlanta University. Flipper retired in Atlanta and is buried in Thomasville.
Henry Ossian Flipper was born less than a decade before the end of the Civil War that freed him and his family from slavery. His father was a skilled shoemaker and carriage trimmer who set up business in Atlanta after the war, enabling him to afford private tutoring to educate his two sons.
In July of 1873, Flipper applied to West Point and became the fifth black cadet to enroll at the Academy. Conditions were less than ideal, as he was ostracized, shunned, and frequently insulted by his fellow plebes and cadets, from the moment that he stepped on its grounds. As a result, Flipper lived a relatively solitary existence at West Point. The senior cadets imposed a code of silence and warned the junior cadets and plebes against associating with Flipper. The few Flipper ‘sympathizers’ complied with the code to avoid the same treatment forced on Flipper.
Flipper lived alone for his much of his time at West Point (except when he roomed with other black cadets). The other five black cadets entering West Point before Flipper did not make it to graduation—some succumbed to the harsh treatment and racism; others failed the rigorous exams. Still, despite the challenges, Flipper preserved, and in 1877, he became the first black graduate of West Point Academy. When Flipper stepped on the stage as he collected his diploma, the other West Point cadets and dignitaries voiced their recognition of his formidable achievements by giving him rousing ovation—he was the only cadet to receive one. Flipper wrote a book based on his experiences, titled, The Colored Cadet at West Point. In the book, Flipper went out of his way to remain positive, never blaming any of the unfavorable treatment he encountered “based on my color.” He was proud of his accomplishments at West Point and was ready to serve his country.
After graduation Flipper was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 10th Cavalry, one of the few all-black regiments, commonly known as the “Buffalo Soldiers.” Flipper was assigned to 'A' Troop under the command of Captain Nicholas M. Nolan, where he became the first nonwhite officer in history to lead his unit of soldiers.
From 1878 until 1880, Lieutenant Flipper served on frontier duty in various installations in the Southwest, including Fort Sill, Oklahoma. This was during a time when the “Wild West” territories and states were being ‘tamed’ of lawlessness, and Native American tribes were being pushed onto reservations or non-occupied territories. While Flipper was involved and served with distinction during the Apache Wars and the Victorio Campaign, his primary duties included scouting, and serving as his post’s surveyor, engineer, construction supervisor, post quartermaster, and commissary officer. He also supervised the construction of roads and telegraph lines.
One of Flipper’s assigned tasks was to drain some stagnant pools that had turned into breeding grounds for deadly malaria that was spreading throughout the Fort and the neighboring areas. The Army had failed twice before to drain the area. Flipper utilized his civil engineering skills, learned at West Point, to design a ditch that properly drained the area and solved the malaria crisis. Flipper’s ditch design created the optical illusion that the water traveled uphill. Initially, the other soldiers and his superiors doubted that Flipper’s feat of engineering would work, and they besmirched his efforts by calling the trough “Flipper’s Folly.” But the Army has since named it “Flipper’s Ditch.”, and the still working ditch is now a National Historic Landmark.
In 1879, Captain Nolan brought his wife, Anne Eleanor Dwyer, and sister-in-law, Miss Mollie Dwyer, to Fort Elliott in Texas, where Flipper was stationed. Nolan was the de facto commander of Fort Elliott, and he made Flipper his assistant officer. Flipper was a frequent guest at the Nolan’s dinner table, and Mollie Dwyer and Flipper soon became friends and often went riding together. However, rumors and letters hinted at improprieties against Flipper, an African American, and Dwyer, a Caucasian. Relationships between whites and blacks were strictly forbidden from the viewpoint of the white officers and soldiers. There was talk of fellow officers starting a smear campaign at the base.
Flipper’s unit was re-assigned to Fort Davis, in Texas, under Colonel William Rufus Shafter. Shafter had a reputation for his rough treatment of junior officers, particularly those he did not like. Flipper was assigned the task of managing the post’s commissary and transacting with local merchants. For some reason, instead of using the commissary safe, Flipper kept the proceeds of the commissary and merchant transactions in a locked trunk in his officer’s residence. A few months later, Flipper noticed a discrepancy between the amount of cash and checks in his possession and the amount in his ledgers.
Flipper suspected that the shortage could be used against him by officers intent on forcing him out of the Army, and he was concerned about incurring Shafter’s wrath, so Flipper hid the discrepancies. When Shafter got suspicious, he questioned Flipper, and Flipper repeatedly dodged the truth about the shortage, hoping to make up the discrepancy from his own wages and other payments that were coming due. Once the shortfall was discovered, Shafter wrongly accused Flipper of attempting to flee the base with the money and had him arrested for embezzling government funds. Shafter ordered Flipper confined to an inhuman stockade that was used to jail non-officers. Word quickly spread on and off the base about the missing money. Many felt it was a setup, and merchants in the local community came up with the money to replace what was missing. Shafter accepted the cash, then convened a court-martial.
The charges included embezzling funds and several charges of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. At trial, Flipper was acquitted of the embezzlement charge but was found guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer for making false statements to Shafter, for signing financial records he knew to be incorrect, and for writing a check on a nonexistent bank account. On June 30, 1882, Flipper was dismissed from the Army, as was required by his conviction.
In reviewing the trial, the Judge Advocate General, the Army’s chief legal officer, recommended a lesser punishment other than dismissal—based, in part on a review of similar convictions of white officers. However, President Chester Arthur upheld the court-martial sentence for political reasons.
Afterward, Flipper set out to establish himself in civilian life and enjoyed a successful career as an engineer, surveyor, and translator for private companies and the Federal government throughout the southwestern United States. Flipper became a recognized expert regarding Spanish and Mexican land mining laws. His post-military accomplishments would be considered amazing over-achievements, and they certainly would have, even for a Caucasian who did not have to contend with the bigotry and racism that Flipper experienced.
Henry Flipper went on to distinguish himself in a variety of governmental and private engineering positions. These included serving as surveyor, civil and military engineer, author, translator, special agent of the Justice Department, as well as an authority on territorial, Mexican, and Venezuelan land and mining laws. He was frequently consulted as an expert on these subjects, and he became an interpreter of Mexican law and Spanish translator for a Senate subcommittee studying the impact of the Mexican Revolution on American economic interests. Flipper spent time in Mexico, at times consulting the Mexican government, and on returning to the United States, he served as an adviser to Senator Albert Fall on Mexican politics. When Senator Fall became Secretary of the Interior in 1921, he brought Flipper with him to Washington, D.C., to serve as his special assistant. From 1893 to 1901, he worked for the U. S. Department of Justice as a special agent for the Court of Private Land Claims, where he researched and helped adjudicate cases between disputing land claimants. In addition to his job translating Spanish documents, he surveyed land grants and often appeared as a government witness, including in cases involving him appearing in front of the United States Supreme Court.
Flipper was a prolific author, writing five books, including about scientific topics and the history of the Southwest. His first publication was an autobiography, The Colored Cadet at West Point . His posthumous memoir, Black Frontiersman: The Memoir of Henry O. Flipper, First Black Graduate of West Point, detailed his life as a Buffalo Soldier and frontiersman. His other works included Spanish and Mexican Land Laws: New Spain and Mexico. Flipper was also the first black editor of an all-white newspaper.
Throughout the balance of his life, Henry Flipper maintained that he was innocent of the charges that that warranted his dismissal from the Army. Flipper made numerous attempts to have his conviction reversed and to be reinstated to his commission as an officer. He made frequent trips to Washington DC in that quest. Friends and fellow officers testified in supported his efforts and congressman spoke on his behalf, all to no avail. His Congressional supporters in The House of Representatives introduced legislation, in a failed attempt to reinstate his commission.
Lieut. Henry O. Flipper eventually retired in 1934, during the Great Depression, after his unsuccessful attempts to find civilian or government employment that valued his unique expertise. Flipper did not possess any savings, so he moved in with Atlanta relatives, where he lived the last years of his life in a mostly solitary existence. Flipper died as a pauper at age 84 with the stain of his Court-Marshal and conviction remaining on his reputation. On May 5, 1940, Flipper was found dead of a heart attack in his bedroom and was buried in a segregated cemetery in an unmarked grave.
Thirty-six years after his death, his descendants and supporters applied to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records on behalf of Lieut. Flipper. The Board acknowledged that Flipper had falsified reports and lied to his commanding officer, nevertheless, it concluded that “the continuance of the stigma from a dismissal, which characterizes his entire service as dishonorable, is unduly harsh, and therefore unjust.” and recommended that Flipper's dismissal commuted to a good conduct discharge. The Assistant Secretary of the Army and The Adjutant General approved the Board's findings and directed that the Department of the Army overturn Flipper’s dismissal and give him a Certificate of Honorable Discharge, retroactive to June 30, 1882, 96 years after his dismissal from the Army.
After Flipper was granted a posthumous honorable discharge, his body was exhumed and reburied in the Old Magnolia Cemetery in Thomasville. Flipper’s body was carried to his new gravesite in a mule-drawn wagon with a rider less horse, attended by a crowd estimated to be around 500, with family members and dignitaries from the U.S. Army, West Point, and the Georgia government who followed an honor guard from Fort Benning and which featured a 21-gun salute.
Despite his retroactive honorable discharge, Flipper’s conviction remained on his record. On October 21, 1997, Arnold & Porter, a highly regarded D.C. law firm, filed an application of pardon with the Secretary of the Army on Lieutenant Flipper's behalf. The application was forwarded to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, Department of Justice, with a recommendation that the pardon be approved. The Pardon petition faced an uphill battle as in the history of the United States, Presidential pardons had never been posthumously granted. However, a team of attorneys at Arnold & Porter launched a persuasive argument and, as a result, on February 19, 1999 President William Jefferson Clinton pardoned Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper in a White House ceremony attended by Flipper’s descendants and military dignitaries. Flipper was the first American in history to be posthumously pardoned. In pardoning Flipper, the President recognized an error in his treatment and acknowledged his lifetime accomplishments. The event came 59 years after his death and 117 years after the young lieutenant had been dismissed from the United States Army.
Every year, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point honors a cadet who succeeds in the face of great hardship. The award is named for Lieut. Henry O. Flipper, the first African American graduate of the Academy, as well as the first black to become an officer in the U.S. Army. Lieut. Flipper represents the strength, values, and diversity of African American military heroes and uniquely, is the only former slave being considered for the honor.
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