While responding to a number of questions posed by Colonel W.A. Graham, Godfrey described his first visit to the Custer battlefield. He seems to have been startled by the colors: “The marble white bodies, the somber brown of the dead horses. . .tufts of reddish brown grass on the almost ashy white soil. . .” He observed that from a distance the stripped men resembled white boulders, and he heard West exclaim: “Oh, how white they look! How white!”
More than two hundred bodies and about seventy animal carcasses had been exposed to the June sun for two or three days when burial parties went to work. Pvts. Berry and Slaper remember being assigned to this duty on the twenty-seventh, Varnum went to work on the twenty-eighth, and there are reports of burials on the twenty-ninth. Soldiers detailed to hide the remains were overcome by nausea, vomiting and retching while they tried to dig graves, so the business was simplified. Bodies thought to be those of officers were nudged into shallow trenches. Each officer’s name was written on a slip of paper which was inserted into an empty cartridge and the cartridge was hammered into the top of a stake or a length of lodge pole set beside the trench.
Those thought to be enlisted men were hastily concealed beneath sagebrush or a few shovels of dirt. Some attempt was made to identify them though not much. Few could be recognized. Very often the features were distorted by fright or anguish.
Leonard Durso 
how dreadful…
The aftermath of war usually is.
yes – except I’d say always…
And you unfortunately would be right
We actually visited the battlefield several years ago near Billings, Montana in July so the weather mirrored what the siege must have been like. The soldiers were on higher ground in the eastern Montana prairie under a pitiless sun in heat exceeding 100 degrees F during the day and were wearing 3 layers of woolen uniforms. They looked down at the Indians below them camped out by the Rosebud Creek, the only source of water for miles, and, I’m sure, knew that they were damned… Anita
Yes, visiting the battlefield is a good way to fully understand what happened. I visited there back in the 1970s and have since read several works relating to not just the battle but the main players. I have my copy of Connell’s book here in Turkey and have been rereading it once again. I only wish I had all my books here but that will have to wait until I go back to NY for a visit this fall and arrange to ship them here. But Connell’s book is well worth reading if you haven’t already.