3262 PHOTO OF MUTILATED BODY OF US TROOPER SARGEANT

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This item SOLD at 2024 Jul 24 @ 12:41UTC-4 : AST/EDT
Category Firearms & Military
Auction Currency USD
Start Price 100.00 USD
Estimated at 200.00 - 400.00 USD
FREDERICK WYLLYAMS. This photo was taken in 1867 with different attributions as to photographer. It was reproduced for Harper's in 1867 and is the most famous image of this genre. Image is described in "Son Of The Morning Star: Custer And The Little Bighorn" by Evan S. Connell, Harper Perennial, NY, 1984. (pages 160-161): "I shall minutely describe this horrid sight," Dr. Bell wrote, "not for the sake of creating a sensation, but because it is characteristic of a mode of warfare soon-thank God, to be abolished, and because the mutilations have, as we shall presently see, most of them some meaning, apart from brutality and a desire to inspire fear". Dr. Bell then proceeds to summarize the relevant signs: drawing a finger across one arm to symbolize Cheyenne, seizing the nose to indicate Arapaho, cut throat signifying Sioux. "If we now turn to the body of poor Sergeant Wyllyams, we shall have no difficulty in recognizing some meaning in the wounds. The muscles of the right arm, hacked to the bone, speak of the Cheyennes, or 'Cut Arms'; the nose slit denotes the 'Smeller Tribe' or Arapahoes; and the throat cut bears witness that the Sioux were also present. There were, therefore, amongst the warriors, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Sioux. It was not till some time afterwards that I knew positively what these signs meant, and have not yet discovered what tribe was indicated by the incisions down the thighs, and the laceration of the calves of the legs, in oblique parallel gashes. The arrows also varied in make and colour according to the tribe; and it was evident, from the number of different devices, that warriors from several tribes had each purposely left one in the dead man's body". CONDITION: very good 20th century copy made from negative at Fort Sill Artillery School. PROVENANCE: Martin Lane Historic & Western Americana Lifetime Collection. (02-21900/JS). $200-400.