This is a very important document in what I call the "Flipper file."
The letter text also represents one side in a very complex case.
The text of this letter also needs to be measured against/along with other material in the Flipper story: the more than 600 pages of court-martial record (plus another several hundred pages of supporting docuiments and trial exhibits), the full text of Flipper's l898 petition to Congress for restoration to ther army, his l9l6 memoris (available in publisd form--most recently as Black Frontiersman),the text of subsequent petitions to Congtress (there were a total of nine up to l924). And this is just the beginning. Flipper also discussed his case in several newspaper stories published between the mid-l880s and the early l900s. It is also necessary to weigh Flipper's own words along side of how they were prersented/interpreted by others invloved in the Lieutenant's l977 honorable discharge and the l999 posthumous presidential pardon.

Tom Phillips