Henry Ossian Flipper

In this chapter I shall describe only those phases of cadet life which are experienced by “yearlings” in their “yearling camp.” Beginning July 5th, or as soon after as practicable, the third class receive practical instruction in the nomenclature and manual of the field piece. This drill continues till August 1st, when they begin the […]

The kind of treatment we are to receive at the hands of others depends entirely upon ourselves. I think my life at West Point sufficiently proves the truth of this assertion. I entered the Academy at a time when, as one paper had it, West Point was a “hotbed of disloyalty and snobbery, a useless

A brave and honorable and courteous man Will not insult me; and none other can.” Cowper. “How do they treat you?” “How do you get along?” and multitudes of analogous questions have been asked me over and over again. Many have asked them for mere curiosity s sake, and to all such my answers have

Columbia, S.C., August 19, 1874. To the Editor of the New National Era: “Sir: My communications, thus far, have brought me to the end of my first year at the Academy, and now we come to the events of the second. In June of 1871, the proverbial silver lining, which the darkest cloud is said

Notwithstanding the secrecy of hazing, and the great care which those who practiced it took to prevent being “hived,” they sometimes overreached themselves and were severely punished. Cases have occurred where cadets have been dismissed for hazing, while others have been less severely punished. Sometimes, also, the joke, if I may so call it, has

“We publish this morning an account of Cadet Smith s standing at West Point, which should be taken with a few grains of allowance. The embryo colored soldier and all his friends black, white and tan believe that the administrationists have used him shamefully, especially in view of their professions and of the chief source

The academic year begins July 1st, and continues till about June 20th the following year. As soon after this as practicable depending upon what time the examination is finished the corps moves into camp, with the exception of the second class, who go on furlough instead. Between the 20th of August and the 1st of

Henry Ossian Flipper, the eldest of five brothers, and the subject of this narrative, was born in Thomasville, Thomas County, Georgia, on the 21st day of March, 1856. He and his mother were the property (?) of Rev. Reuben H. Lucky, a Methodist minister of that place. His father, Festus Flipper, by trade a shoemaker

July 1, 1876! Only one year more; and yet how wearily the days come and go! How anxiously we watch them, how eagerly we count them, as they glimmer in the distance, and forget them as they fade! What joyous anticipation, what confident expectation, what hope animates each soul, each heart, each being of us!

May 20th, 1873! Auspicious day! From the deck of the little ferry boat that steamed its way across from Garrison s on that eventful afternoon I viewed the hills about West Point, her stone structures perched thereon, thus rising still higher, as if providing access to the very pinnacle of fame, and shuddered. With my

“Plebe Camp!” The very words are suggestive. Those who have been cadets know what “plebe camp” is. To a plebe just beginning his military career the first experience of camp is most trying. To him every thing is new. Every one seems determined to impose upon him, and each individual “plebe” fancies at times he

The privileges allowed cadets during an encampment are different generally for the different classes. These privileges are commonly designated by the rank of the class, such, for instance, as “first-class privileges,” “third-class privileges,” etc. Privileges which are common receive their designation from some characteristic in their nature or purpose. Thus we have “Saturday afternoon privileges,”

Here is an editorial article from the New York Tribune. It needs no comment, nor do the two following, which were clipped from the Christian Union. Lieutenant Flipper.”Among the West Point graduates this year is young Flipper, a lad of color and of African descent. It is stated that he acquitted himself very respectably in

James Webster Smith, a native of South Carolina, was appointed to a cadetship at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1870, by the Hon. S. L. Hoge. He reported, as instructed, at the Military Academy in the early summer of 1870, and succeeded in passing the physical and intellectual examination

Incidents, Humor, Etc.

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.” My four years were drawing to a close. They had been years of patient endurance and hard and persistent work, interspersed with bright oases of happiness and gladness and joy, as well as weary barren wastes of loneliness, isolation, unhappiness, and melancholy. I believe I have discharged