The Fall of a Black Army Officer: Racism and the Myth of Henry O. Flipper (review)

Henry O. Flipper was the first black Regular Army officer. Twelve years after the Civil War, in 1877, he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy, the first black cadet to do so. Assigned to the 10th Cavalry, Flipper served in Indian Territory and Texas until 1881, when he was charged with embezzlement and conduct unbecoming an officer while post commissary officer at Fort Davis, Texas. At a court-martial that started in September and ended in December 1881, the government failed to prove that he appropriated the missing money for his own use, so he was acquitted of the first charge. In fact, with the aid of Flipper's acquaintances among local civilian merchants, the money was quickly recovered. However, the court convicted him of conduct unbecoming an officer and gentlemen for lying to his commander, falsifying reports, and writing a bad check to cover his losses. On 30 June 1882, after five years as a second lieutenant, he was dismissed from the army. Five more years passed before another black officer emerged from West Point in 1887. Another graduated in 1889, and almost fifty years went by before the next one. Rather than opening the door for future black officers, Flipper's service may have helped keep it shut.

The Fall of a Black Army Officer summarizes and assesses Flipper's trial and dismissal. Drawing extensively on previous research and analysis by British writer Barry Johnson and American historian Thomas Phillips, the book represents a thorough reconsideration and a reversal of Robinson's earlier view that the sentence was unjust, set forth in his 1994 book, The Court-Martial of Lieutenant Henry Flipper.

At its heart, this book features a detailed examination of the trial testimony. Unlike almost all earlier works about Flipper, this book considers the verdict justified and fair. Flipper was casual to the point of recklessness in handling government funds. Then he lied about his accounts to his commander, Colonel William Shafter, and later wrote a bad check to cover the shortages. Shafter, who originally supported Flipper, turned against him at that point. Flipper exacerbated the situation with an intemperate letter to a black attorney named John F. Quarles, who released the letter to the press, infuriating Shafter. Later historians have placed Shafter at the center of a racist plot to destroy Flipper. Robinson does not agree: "Deceived and publicly insulted by a very junior officer, Shafter now believed Flipper capable of anything, and let his imagination run wild. Then, having convinced himself that Flipper was a villain of the deepest dye, he set about to prove it" (p. 124).

The Quarles letter, in which Flipper expressed concern about Shafter's motivations, is a crucial piece of the mosaic. According to Robinson, the letter clearly shows Flipper preparing excuses for his actions, but once published it made matters worse for him. Shafter expressed his anger over the letter at the trial, and for good reason. It portrayed him as "a sloppy administrator, a racist, and an autocrat." Nevertheless, Robinson insists, "it was also obvious that Shafter initially entered his investigation convinced of Flipper's innocence and only later came to believe that he had stolen the money" (p. 98). As Robinson shows, the record does not substantiate Flipper's claim that Shafter had sought ways to make trouble for him, but rather that he first tried to preserve Flipper's integrity as an army officer, rather than persecute him as a black officer. As Robinson concludes, "The case for conduct unbecoming an officer was airtight under any interpretation, and that is how the court saw it…" (p. 141).

Sixteen years after his dismissal, Flipper started a series of appeals, blaming Shafter and other officers for his troubles. In 1916, he introduced into the narrative a social relationship with the sister...