b'Jews continued from page 19Thirdly, he was born in Kaunas also known as Kovno,on the summit of the hill, the only enlisted man of a major Lithuanian city with a substantial Jewishthat company recorded by name was Private Ignatz population, just west of the line of the notoriousStungewitz, who was recognized by Lieutenant "Pale of Settlement" which ghettoized Russian Jews.Godfrey" (Brest, James S., Pohanka, Brian C., Barnard, According to the Kaunas Wikipedia entry, Kaunas, orSandy, Where Custer Fell: Photographs of the Little Kovno had a significant Jewish population. AccordingBig Horn Battlefield Then and Now, University of to the Russian census of 1897, Jews numbered 25,500,Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma, 2005, p. 127).35.3% of the total of 73,500. The population was recorded as 25.8% Russian, 22.7% Polish, and 6.6%Godfrey had seen Stungewitz\'s body on theLithuanian. It established numerous schools andbloody field near Custer Hill, and for a time he was synagogues and was important for centuries to theburied near where he fell, but it is said that yearsculture and business of the city. later, his remains, and those of other 7th CavalryKIA were transferred to the Custer Memorial In short, the majority of Kovno\'s (Kaunas) populationCemetery in Augusta, Michigan, but even that is was Jewish and given Stungewitz\'s unique name subject to conjecture.the possibility of him being Jewish was more likelythan not. The terrible irony is that this Russian (Lithuanian) Jewish immigrant Ignatz Stungewitz had escaped the It is said that Stungewitz perhaps knowing he wasforced conscription of the Czar\'s Russian Army only to Jewish and that he was susceptible to the mandatoryenlist in the United State Army\'s 7th Cavalry, and as a and odious conscription into the Czar\'s Russianprivate of Custer\'s C Company become one of the very Armies chose not to enter a military service reeking oflast to be killed as a member of Custer\'s headquarters disgusting anti-Semitism and notorious for its beatingscompany, just yards away from George Armstrong of young Jewish recruits. Accordingly, he fled to theCuster on the slope of Last Stand Hill, approximately United States, where, after his brief employment as a5:30 on that hot Sunday afternoon of June 25, 1876, Battle of the Little Big HornGraphicaArtis/Getty Images n yoT Pehclerk, voluntarily enlisted in the United States Army inon that Montana hill, the only Russian or Jew (Russian2nd Hand Storelate 1873, and after reporting for duty was assigned as aJew) to be killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It private to C Company, 7th Cavalry at Fort Rice, Dakotawas an extremely sad and proverbial case of jumping Territory, just missing by several months, Custer\'sfrom the fire pan directly into the fire. We Collect & Deliver 1873 Yellowstone Expedition. C Company was initiallyYour Merchandiseassigned to Custer\'s younger brother Captain ThomasNext month, the saga of the famed Sol Star, who with Custer but when the younger Custer was attached to hishis best friend Seth Bullock would clean up DeadwoodFREE LOCAL DELIVERY AVAILABLEbrother\'s headquarters staff, command of the companyin the wake of Wild Bill\'s murder, this Jewish merchant662 W. Wickenburg Way fell to Lieutenant Henry Harrington. It was undereventually becoming the Mayor of Deadwood andWickenburgOpen MondaySaturdayHarrington that C Company rode to its destiny and toimmortalized in the "Deadwood" HBO series, of "Jewthepony2ndhandstore.comtheir deaths in the valley of the Little Big Horn. Jake," the saloon keeper befriended by the larger-than-life Pike Landusky, only to see his friend, the928-231-2730928-232-2019It would be then-lieutenant and future US Army MajorMontana pioneer shot dead by the notorious HarveyWe Carry Quality 2nd Hand General Edward S. Godfrey, a member of Reno\'sLogan (Kid Curry) of "Wild Bunch" fame, who had a& New Merchandisecommand and therefore fortunate to have survived therunning feud with Landusky, and finally a Jewish cattleYour Home Furniture Supplies Storebattle who would come across Stungewitz\'s remainsbaron\'s inquiry into what happened to his cattle in the just yards below from where the bodies of Custer andaftermath of the blizzards of 1886 and 1887 the answerSpecializing in AppliancesStungewitz\'s former C Company commander Tomto which would inspire Charlie Russell\'s poignant first- Jane and Peter KibbleCuster would be found. As noted in Where Custerknown and one of the most famous of the Cowboypony2ndhandstore@outlook.com Fell: "Although several sorrel horses - the color ofartist\'s drawings. mount ridden by the soldiers of Company C - lay Pick up our February issue for Part 8.ArizonaRealCountry.com January 2024 21'