Rules sometimes conflict: damned if you do and so on. When rules conflict, folks get hurt.

Rule 1: An officer must not date an enlisted person or family member because officers and enlisted men must not socialize. This rule has not wavered in thousands of years. Better for a Roman tribune (lieutenant) to date the daughter of a barbarian than a lass whose dad happened to be a centurion (sergeant). Rule one will still be in effect when humankind colonizes the galaxy.

Rule 2: An Afro-American soldier must not date the daughter of a Euro-American soldier (or vice-versa). This rule appeared in the U.S. Army in 1800 and died, to everyone's relief, after two centuries.

While they were in conflict, these two rules destroyed a military career and damaged our nation's defense preparedness. This is the tale of a healthy young man on an isolated post with no civilian community near, who happened to be the only Afro-European-looking U.S. Army line officer on the planet.

Henry Ossian Flipper was born a slave in Thomasville GA on March 21, 1856. His father purchased the family's freedom and moved them to Atlanta in 1859. In 1873 his outstanding record as a freshman at Atlanta University earned him an appointment to the United States Military Academy. There he met South Carolinian James Webster Smith.

Three years earlier, Smith had been at Howard University when he received his appointment to West Point. (Another African-American student, named Michael Howard, was also appointed in 1870, but failed the entrance exam.) Smith was harassed from the start: slops were thrown on him, he was jostled, his feet stepped on, and a caricature of him circulated on campus. He reacted angrily each time, and the attacks escalated in violence. He wrote a friend that he was hardly able to sleep more than two hours each night. Eventually he was worn down, failed a philosophy exam, and was dropped out in 1874. The top brass gritted their teeth and held their breath. You will see why in a moment.

Henry Flipper saw what happened to Smith, so he ignored every attempt to goad him. Unfueled by reaction from its victim, his harassment tapered off. Flipper studied engineering, law, mathematics and Spanish. On June 15, 1877, despite four years of social ostracism, he became the first man of visibly African descent to graduate from West Point. He was assigned to Company "A" of the Tenth Cavalry, the famed Buffalo Soldiers.

The Army brass (Grant, Sheridan, Upton) had wanted all three young men to succeed, and now Flipper was the only one left of their first batch. Since Appomatox, they had figured that the way to spread Black soldiers' enthusiasm throughout the Army was to racially integrate officers as well as enlisted men. But this meant that someday an Afro-American would order Euro-Americans to risk their lives and expect unhesitating obedience. Obviously, this could take generations to accomplish. The Army had Black staff officers during the Civil War. But medical doctors, chaplains, signal corps technicians, accountants, and band leaders are not in the chain of command. Their staff rank is a formality to respect a specialized skill. With extremely rare exceptions, a staff officer cannot command.

In short, the nation needed a cadre of African-American families with traditions of military command. The first step was to grow a crop of bright young Black lieutenants. The second step would be to get them married and producing little future colonels and generals. This is why, when Congress ordered the racial integration of the Army in 1867, it was the Black soldiers themselves who talked Congress out of it. Integration then would have condemned African-Americans to the enlisted ranks forever. Segregated regiments were intended as a temporary sheltered greenhouse where the Army could raise its first crop of Black line officers.

The Tenth Cavalry was the ideal posting for Lt. Flipper. It was a crack unit whose sergeants so eagerly awaited being led by officers of African descent, that they would help him overcome his inexperience.

The regiment was headed by Col. Benjamin Grierson, an accomplished classical pianist and music teacher who was almost killed as a child when kicked in the head by a horse. He hated horses. Naturally, the Army in its infinite wisdom made him a cavalry commander. He became one of the three most talented cavalrymen of his day. In April 1863, his small band of riders tore lengthwise through Mississippi, burning bridges, wrecking railroads, cutting telegraph lines, and nimbly dodging hordes of pursuing Confederates from Gen. John Pemberton's ponderous army. Grierson's raid diverted so much attention that the Rebels failed to notice Gen. Grant's army until it sneaked up from the wrong side of Vicksburg and stomped them flat. Col. Grierson dedicated his post-war career to furthering the Army's plan for Black officers.

The problem, when it came, was one which everyone saw in hindsight, but no one foresaw. It was the fault of the location. Fort Davis was an isolated post, miles from civilization. No one lived there but military families. Flipper was 25 years old. The only young men he could socialize with were White officers. No problem. The only young women he could socialize with were White officers' daughters. Problem.

The rumors say she was a Colonel's daughter. She was pretty, vivacious and, like countless Colonel's daughters before and since, had a mind of her own. Henry Flipper was handsome, intelligent, fun to be with and, like countless love-struck young men before and since, was blind to every pitfall. She was ordered to stop seeing him. She tossed her curls and laughed. He was ordered to stop seeing her. He tried to obey but crumbled each time she beckoned him to a horseback ride into the surrounding hills.

At his court martial he faced two accusations: misappropriation of company funds and conduct unbecoming to an officer and a gentleman.

The first charge was a pointless attempt by the accuser (apparently, her jilted former companion) to complicate things. Flipper had managed the commissary store. Without asking permission, he had let customers open charge accounts. Technically, merchandise had left and money had not come in, hence the accusation. It was pointless because, as soon as they heard he was arrested, all the guys paid up their accounts and Flipper submitted the now-closed accounting books in evidence. The court considered dismissing the charge, but decided instead that openly finding him "not guilty" was better for the young man's reputation. So they acquitted him of the trumped up first charge.

They convicted him of the second charge. He had violated rule 2, no mistake about it. A century before or a century later, no one would have blinked. But in 1882 the brass had painted themselves into a corner and had to live with the consequences. They gave Flipper a dishonorable discharge and set back the emergence of Euro-African-American Army officers for a generation.

It was the Army that suffered, not the talented young engineer. Whether Black or biracial, military or civilian, Flipper was too bright to waste. He became a special agent for the Department of Justice where his linguistic skills in translating complex Spanish land grants aided in resolving thousands of acres of disputed land in the Southwest. He published translations of Spanish and Mexican laws which continue to be standard reference material today. He became Assistant to the Secretary of Interior during the administration of Warren G. Harding (this particular president was definitely not a one-dropper), distinguishing himself as a civil engineer and geologist in West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Mexico. He had a brilliant, rewarding career and was respected by peers, superiors, and subordinates.

What became of her? I truly wish I could tell you that she married him, bore his children, and shared his life's triumphs, but I cannot. History is silent about her, and he remained single to his death.

The Army had needed Henry Flipper much more than Henry Flipper had needed the Army, and they both knew it. The brass vowed to post future horny young lieutenants near cities with bustling Black communities -- at least until married. But it was too late. In the end, they sent over twenty young African-Americans to West Point. Twelve passed the entrance exam. Only Flipper and two others overcame the hazing and graduated. Then, Grant, Upton, and Sheridan died. The Jim Crow wave of racial hatred swept over America, and darkness fell on the Army's hope for African-American officers. It would not start to revive again for another half-century.

Despite his success as a civilian, Flipper always saw himself as an Army officer. He tried to get the dishonorable discharge stain erased to the day he died in 1940. In 1976, thirty-six years after his death, the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records reversed his conviction. They altered his discharge status to honorable and ordered belated military honors held over his grave (rifle squad, bugler, flag-folding, etc.). In May 1977 -- the centennial of his graduation -- West Point unveiled a bust in his honor. Their annual Flipper award now goes to the cadet who best exemplifies his tradition of overcoming adversity by sheer grit.

The Tenth Cavalry still lives, and still call themselves Buffalo Soldiers. Of course, like all US Army units today, its men and women are a kaleidoscope of colors and ethnicities. In the summer of 1997, their 135th annual reunion commemorated the 120th Anniversary of Flipper's graduation. Senator Paul Coverdell (R-GA) is now pushing for a commemorative postage stamp recognizing the contributions of Lt. Henry Ossian Flipper.

There is an irony here. Some African-Americans today see Flipper as a sort of icon for the Black community, adjusting his image to fit modern ideas. This is inaccurate. Flipper's writings are readily available. He was a light-complexioned biracial man of his time. He defended some aspects of slavery. He supported the three-fifths provision of the Constitution. He believed that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation had illegally confiscated Southerners' property. He vehemently defended the states' rights ideologies of Southern Whites. He supported poll taxes, defended White-only Democratic primaries, and opposed anti-lynching legislation.

None of this detracts from the man's integrity, professional brilliance, and scholarly reputation. Henry Flipper was a great man and deserves our admiration. He was not a right-wing conservative. He was simply a 19th century biracial American who survived the Jim Crow terror. We must not blame him for lacking 21st century attitudes.

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