Note 39 — XXXI THE AMERICANS AS CONQUERORS 1846–1848

A specimen case was that of private Gahagiun of the Seventh Infantry (65gen. orders 378). For breaking into a house and taking some ladies’ clothing he was sentenced to receive fifty lashes on his bare back “well laid on with a rawhide,” to be confined at hard labor during the rest of his term, to be then dishonorably discharged and drummed out—$250 of his pay to go to the person robbed and the rest to be confiscated. Mexicans as well as Americans were publicly flogged. In extreme cases hanging was the punishment.