Hello everyone,
Personally, here is what I find to be a little-known aspect of the battle…
Acts of torture were committed against rare prisoners brought back to the village, as attested by the Hunkpapa "Little Knife":
"A soldier with stripes on his arm (probably a sergeant or corporal chevron) was taken prisoner. He was was performed during a dance that took place late at night.
A young Lakota or Santee named "Round Fool" recounts how a soldier who was hiding in "berry bushes" near the river was found during the night by warriors and "burned alive.".
It is unknown if this happened in the village or in the woods.
The Northern Cheyenne chief "Two Moon" also spoke of torture ceremonies in the village. He later recanted, no doubt aware that his revelations could get him into trouble.
Major Marcus Albert Reno said: "With my binoculars, I could see from the hill the Indians engaged in a dance around three captives tied to poles." On June 27, Sergeant John Ryan saw "human bones" and "pieces of uniforms" scattered in the village, discoveries confirmed by Lieutenant Winfield Scott Edgerly and General Alfred Howe Terry in particular.
Three heads of soldiers, half consumed and showing signs of violence, were found in the village, impaled on stakes arranged in a triangle. The head of a corporal of "G" Company was discovered in a cauldron, while the body of Sergeant James Bustard, of "I" Company, lay in the middle of the village site.
On Reno hill, hidden in the shadow of a thick sage bush, Jean-Baptiste Désiré Gallenne, 27 years old former student in Lorient, will transmit his diary to a priest on July 5, "The only lights that we The fires of the Indian camp can be seen. The drums are still resounding, like a funeral march, while the terrible cries of the captives tortured by the victors rise in the night. The soldiers and their Bunkies have gathered. Some are sobbing, others went to vomit near the little ravine.".
It's strange, because on December 21, 1866 the Indians massacred the entire detachment of Captain William Judd Fetterman without capturing anyone and even behaved admirably with a bugler, whom they simply killed and respected his remains, while they could have captured him and taken him to their village and then…
Yours aye
Paskal