I've been reading up on the American Indian Wars and this practice struck me as particularly barbaric considering the year and as a not uncommon practice of federal troops. I'd love to hear to context about this practice in relation to the conflicts I mentioned, but as to my question I'd love to know how widely such actions continued in the world, globally.
In the context of the year I mentioned, this is just after the American Civil War. I recognize the barbarity of post-actions, but the act of mounting heads on posts strikes me as very medieval (pardon the expression).