18th Century

1,145 Views | 5 Replies | Last: 6 yr ago by Rabid Cougar
sarah7
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I might be making this up because I can't find an answer. Was there a leader that after battles he would collect his victims ears and wear them as a belt/sash? It would be around the early-mid 1800's.
Sapper Redux
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I'm not aware of anyone wearing a sash of ears. That sounds like a fictional exaggeration of some character. The actual history of taking trophies from the dead is really interesting.

Taking body parts was common in Eastern Woodlands Indian warfare. Arms, legs, and ears may be given to allies as symbols of their success. Scalps were most common. Specifically, they believed the scalp lock on a warrior's head contained his soul and by scalping the individual, they held that soul and brought honor to themselves and their tribe (it should be noted that this was not specifically intended as disrespect to the other warrior; if the scalped individual showed great courage and bravery he brought honor to his tribe and to anyone in the presence of his soul).

Beginning in King Philip's War, English colonists began offering scalp bounties. At first the bounties went to native allies but quickly expanded to white soldiers as well. By King William's War, the bounties and their value expanded. Native allies had to have whites with them to verify their kills while white hunters received greater bounties. By Queen Anne's War there were bounties for women and children as well as male Indians and the checks on where the scalps came from disappeared so that allied Indian tribes found themselves attacked by bounty hunters. In Dummer's War you had a Harvard-educated minister eulogized because he was killed while trying to scalp a dead Indian on the battlefield.

The scalps were treated like the heads of wolves or blackbirds. They were reviewed by a local sheriff and then either displayed or mutilated or destroyed to prevent someone from trying to claim multiple bounties with one scalp. Salem displayed all of the scalps collected on the walls of their Meetinghouse (in other words, their church had human scalps lining the walls).
dcbowers
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AG
A reference to the death of early Texas explorer, Philip Nolan, perhaps?

On March 21, 1801, a Spanish force of 120 men under the command of Lieutenant M. Msquiz left Nacogdoches in pursuit of Nolan, whom they encountered entrenched and unwilling to surrender just upstream from where the current Nolan River flows into the larger Brazos (now in Hill County, Texas). Several of Nolan's men surrendered immediately to the Spanish and after Nolan was killed, the remainder yielded. Nolan's ears were cut off as evidence for Spain that he was dead.
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BQ78
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AG
In the 19th Century (1800s) Bloody Bill Anderson's men took ears after ambushing and killing A.V.E.'s Johnston's Battalion just after the Centralia Massacre. It was a bit of a revenge against Johnston for his depredations against Confederate guerilla families in Missouri. Anderson's men including a young Jesses James. Some of Andrson's men cut off the heads of the dead yankees and played a game interchanging heads and bodies to get the best looking dead Yankee. The war in Missouri was pretty depraved on both sides.

There were rumors of Anderson wearing an ear necklace but I think his depravity was no worse than murder and keeping of scalps on his horse's tack. When the Yanks caught up with him and killed him they cut a finger to take his ring and supposedly did some other depraved things to his body. They did take his picture before any mutuilation, that may or may not have occurred (although his finger had already been cut off):

VanZandt92
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She means 19th century.
aalan94
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AG
Quote:

A reference to the death of early Texas explorer, Philip Nolan, perhaps?

On March 21, 1801, a Spanish force of 120 men under the command of Lieutenant M. Msquiz left Nacogdoches in pursuit of Nolan, whom they encountered entrenched and unwilling to surrender just upstream from where the current Nolan River flows into the larger Brazos (now in Hill County, Texas). Several of Nolan's men surrendered immediately to the Spanish and after Nolan was killed, the remainder yielded. Nolan's ears were cut off as evidence for Spain that he was dead.

This happened also during the Santa Fe Expedition with the Texan prisoners. With the dead, it's proof, with prisoners, it's torture. Big difference there. The Mexican officer who captured the Texans at Santa Fe was severely reprimanded, if I remember correctly.
Rabid Cougar
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AG
dcbowers said:

A reference to the death of early Texas explorer, Philip Nolan, perhaps?

On March 21, 1801, a Spanish force of 120 men under the command of Lieutenant M. Msquiz left Nacogdoches in pursuit of Nolan, whom they encountered entrenched and unwilling to surrender just upstream from where the current Nolan River flows into the larger Brazos (now in Hill County, Texas). Several of Nolan's men surrendered immediately to the Spanish and after Nolan was killed, the remainder yielded. Nolan's ears were cut off as evidence for Spain that he was dead.
Well not exactly an explorer. More like a spy. He was working for General James Wilkinson scouting out the land in Texas under the guise of gathering mustang horses.

To keep with the OP. No ears were taken.
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