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In Reid v. Covert, and more recently in Denedo, the U.S. Supreme Court characterized military law as a "rough form of justice" or words to that effect.
A piece in the Cowboy State Daily, Andrew Rossi, Why Criminals At Fort Bridger Preferred A Jail Cell To The Punishment Horse. 2 August 2025, gives an example of why.
In the 1860s, it was one of the most humiliating, brutal and feared forms of punishment at Fort Bridger. More than 160 years later, it’s the most popular attraction at the Fort Bridger State Historic Site.
It seems nobody can escape the Fort Bridger “punishment horse.”
The punishment horse is a military punishment that goes back thousands of years. Also called the “wooden horse” or “Spanish donkey,” it was used as an instrument of torture and a tool to mete out military discipline.
Very interesting! Here's a passage of Pierre-George Roy, "Petites choses de notre histoire", Lévis, 1922, p. 39:
ReplyDelete"On 24 December 1645, two Frenchmen living in Quebec City began drinking while waiting for midnight mass, became intoxicated, and caused a great disturbance. At that time, there were several Indigenous people in Quebec City. They went to see Governor de Montmagny and complained that they were not being treated fairly. ‘When we get drunk,’ they said, ‘we are punished, but nothing is said to the Frenchmen when they commit the same offence.’ Mr. de Montmagny, to show them that justice was equal for all, had the two French drunkards put on the rack and exposed to a terrible north-easterly wind."
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
In French, the rack is "chevalet".
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