first edition Hardcover
1980 · London
by JOHNSON, Barry C.
London: Privately Printed, 1980. Hardcover. Fine. First edition. Octavo. 132pp. Frontispiece portrait. Original publisher's red cloth titled in gilt. Fine. One of 150 numbered copies. Account of the dismissal from the Army of the first black graduate of West Point and the author of *The Colored Cadet at West Point*. Flipper was born into slavery in Georgia in 1856. Although he faced hazing and loneliness at West Point, Flipper graduated, but his military career was brief. Joining the famed 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, he became the first black officer to lead the Buffalo Soldiers into combat in the Indian Wars, but was dismissed for conduct unbecoming an officer in 1882, a finding that reportedly may have been exacerbated by his daily habit of riding horses in the company of the wife of a white officer (the verdict was posthumously overturned in 1976). However his training qualified him as a civil and mining engineer, and he was the first African-American to gain prominence in that field as well. (Inventory #: 423701)