AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN: THE MILITARY CAREER OF LIEUTENANT HENRY O. FLIPPER.
Dayton: The Lora Co., 1985. xvi,186pp. Frontis. illustration. Bibliography. Appendices. Chapter notes. Map. First edition. Printed pictorial wrappers. Near fine copy. Henry O. Flipper was the fifth Black appointed to West Point and the first to graduate. Upon graduation he was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to Company A, Tenth Cavalry. Flipper would serve at Forts Elliot, Concho, Quitman, Davis and, finally, at Fort Sill, Indian Territory. At Fort Sill he was charged with embezzlement and “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentlemen.” Flipper proclaimed his innocence and was acquitted of the first charge but found guilty of the second. He was dismissed from the army in 1882 but went on to have a successful career as a civil engineer. This is a complete biography of Flipper from his birth into slavery in Thomasville, Georgia, to his death of a heart attack in 1940.