Henry Ossian Flipper, the Colored Cadet at West Point / Autobiography of Lieut. Henry Ossian Flipper, U.S.A., First Graduate of Color from the U.S. Military Academy

by Henry Ossian Flipper

"This started afresh the old report about the 'hops,' and every one was on the qui vive to get a glimpse of 'nigger Jim and the nigger wenches who are going to the hops,' as was remarked by a cadet who went up from the guard tent to spread the alarm through camp.

"In a few minutes thereafter the 'gentlemen' had all taken position at the end of the 'company street,' and, with their opera-glasses, were taking observations upon those who, as they thought, had come to desecrate the 'hop' room. I was on guard that day, but not being on post at that time, I was sitting in rear of the guard tents with my friends—that place being provided with camp-stools for the accommodation of visitors— when a cadet corporal, Tyler, of Kentucky, came and ordered me to go and fasten down the corner of the first guard tent, which stood a few paces from where we were sitting.

"I went to do so, when he came there also, and immediately began to rail at me for being so slow, saying he wished me to know that when he ordered me to do anything, I must 'step out' about it, and not try to shirk it. I said nothing, but fastened down the corner of the tent, and went back to where my friends were.

"In a few minutes afterwards he came back, and wanted to know why I hadn't fastened down that tent wall. I told him that I had.

"He said it was not fastened then, and that he did not wish any prevarication on my part.

"I then told him that he had no authority to charge me with prevarication, and that if he believed that I had not fastened down the tent wall, the only thing he could do was to report me. I went back to the tent and found that either Cadet Tyler or some other cadet had unfastened the tent wall, so I fastened it down again. Nothing now was said to me by Cadet Tyler, and I went back to where my friends were: but we had been sitting there only about a half hour, when a private soldier came to us and said, 'It is near time for parade, and you will have to go away from here.' I never was more surprised in my life, and I asked the soldier what he meant, for I surely thought be was either drunk or crazy, but he said that the superintendent had given him orders to allow no colored persons near the visitors' seats during parade.

"I asked him if he recognized me as a cadet. He said he did. I then told him that those were my friends; that I had invited them there to see the parade, and that they were going to stay. He said he had nothing to do with me, of course, but that he had to obey the orders of the superintendent. I then went to the officer of the guard, who was standing near by, and stated the circumstances to him, requesting him to protect us from such insults. He spoke to the soldier, saying that he had best not try to enforce that order, as the order was intended to apply to servants, and then the soldier went off and left us.

"Soon after that the drum sounded for parade, and I was compelled to leave my friends for the purpose of falling in ranks, but promising to return as soon as the parade was over, little thinking that I should not be able to redeem that promise; but such was the case, as I shall now proceed to show.

"Just as the companies were marching off the parade ground, and before the guard was dismissed, the 'officer in charge,' Lieutenant Charles King, Fifth Cavalry, came to the guard tent and ordered me to step out of ranks three paces to the front, which I did.

"He then ordered me to take off my accoutrements and place them with my musket on the gun rack. That being done, he ordered me to take my place in the centre of the guard as a prisoner, and there I stood until the ranks were broken, when I was put in the guard tent. Of course my friends felt very bad about it, as they thought that they were the cause of it, while I could Not speak a word to them, as they went away; and even if I could have spoken to them, I could not have explained the matter, for I did not know myself why I had been put there—at least I did not know what charge had been trumped up against me, though I knew well enough that I had been put there for the purpose of keeping me from the 'hop,' as they expected I would go. The next morning I was put 'in arrest' for 'disobedience of orders in not fastening down tent wall when ordered,' and 'replying in a disrespectful manner to a cadet corporal,' etc.; and thus the simplest thing was magnified into a very serious offence, for the purpose of satisfying the desires of a few narrow-minded cadets. That an officer of the United States Army would allow his prejudices to carry him so far as to act in that way to a subordinate, without giving him a chance to speak a word in his defence—nay, without allowing him to know what charge had been made against him, and that he should be upheld in such action by the 'powers that be,' are sufficient proof to my mind of the feelings which the officers themselves maintained towards us. While I was in ranks, during parade, and my friends were quietly sitting down looking at the parade, another model 'officer and gentleman,' Captain Alexander Piper, Third Artillery—he was president of my second court- martial—came up, in company with a lady, and ordered my brother and sister to get up and let him have their camp-stools, and he actually took away the camp-stools and left them standing, while a different kind of a gentleman—an 'obscure citizen,' with no aristocratic West Point dignity to boast of—kindly tendered his camp-stool to my sister.