During the US-Dakota War of 1862-1865, fighting and bloodshed targeted unarmed non-combatants on both sides. American memory has often fixated only on actions committed by Dakota peoples, Oceti Sakowin, that were deemed depraved. However, sane and level-headed US soldiers also killed and mutilated wounded warriors, as well as fired on women and children. The key elements that made disciplined American soldiers in the US-Dakota War commit atrocities against fallen enemies and noncombatants were the illegal and immoral actions passively permitted, acquiesced through slight penalties, and outright ordered by ranking army commanders prior to and during the campaigns. Commanders were able to influence their troops to behave differently than they did on Confederate battlefields, specifically by expanding the list of acceptable targets and actions their morality could and would accept.