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Custer's Gold
There were a lot of stories about the Black Hills of Dakota. The Sioux people believed that they were the home of the dead Sioux, who lived and walked there. The white men believed the mountains were full of gold.
But General Custer finds a notebook. It seems to prove that there is gold in the hills. This news can lead to only one thing. War!
But General Custer finds a notebook. It seems to prove that there is gold in the hills. This news can lead to only one thing. War!
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Kenneth Ulyatt
14 booksKenneth Raymond Peters Ulyatt lived latterly in Poole, Dorset.
He attended art college prior to World War II, during which he served in the RAF, seeing action in the Middle East. It was there that he met his future wife, Pat.
After the war he returned to England and worked as a commercial artist, as well as helping out in his parents' public house in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He and Pat moved to Poole in the late 1960s.
He had a great interest in art, jazz, literature and movies, particularly westerns, and the old west, which he began writing about in the mid-1960s.
He said of himself: "I have always been lucky enough to earn my living at the two things I most like doing - writing and drawing. And I have always been interested in the frontier days in America; both as a boy, when I was a keen scout and camper, and later, when I began reading the history of the West rather than its fiction. When TV came along and we watched westerns, my children would ask me: `Was it really like that?' and as often as not I would have to say `no.' So I began to write my
first western: a story in which the Indians did not bite the dust and the cavalry were defeated. It was a true story.
"And I think that it was because I tried hard to make that past, which
I found so exciting, vibrant for young readers that the Portugee Phillips trilogy became so successful. The subject of the West, too, transcends frontiers. Portugee Phillips now rides in nine European countries, from Finland to Italy."
He died in Poole on 8 November 2008, aged 88.
He attended art college prior to World War II, during which he served in the RAF, seeing action in the Middle East. It was there that he met his future wife, Pat.
After the war he returned to England and worked as a commercial artist, as well as helping out in his parents' public house in Chesham, Buckinghamshire. He and Pat moved to Poole in the late 1960s.
He had a great interest in art, jazz, literature and movies, particularly westerns, and the old west, which he began writing about in the mid-1960s.
He said of himself: "I have always been lucky enough to earn my living at the two things I most like doing - writing and drawing. And I have always been interested in the frontier days in America; both as a boy, when I was a keen scout and camper, and later, when I began reading the history of the West rather than its fiction. When TV came along and we watched westerns, my children would ask me: `Was it really like that?' and as often as not I would have to say `no.' So I began to write my
first western: a story in which the Indians did not bite the dust and the cavalry were defeated. It was a true story.
"And I think that it was because I tried hard to make that past, which
I found so exciting, vibrant for young readers that the Portugee Phillips trilogy became so successful. The subject of the West, too, transcends frontiers. Portugee Phillips now rides in nine European countries, from Finland to Italy."
He died in Poole on 8 November 2008, aged 88.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 26, 2025
Margery Morris has abridged the original novel but it loses nothing of its impact by its shortening. It is a fast-moving, part historical, part fictional account of the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Custer believed he had found word of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. He kept the news to himself but went about his manoeuvres thereafter with that in mind. But the news of the gold find brought a rush of prospectors to the area and the possibility of trouble with the Sioux Indians who believed the land was theirs.
The prospectors were labelled 'The Rainbowers' caused trouble and the army continually tried to keep them out of the Sioux land, knowing that if they did not do so, trouble and possibly war would follow. They succeeded to a degree but the army sent soldiers into the Black Hills to sort matters out. But by this time Crazy Horse had declared that there would be war.
And so there was and Custer's far from understandable tactics are called into question once more as Sitting Bull wiped out Custer and his men, despite the strictures that Custer had received as to not going into battle with the Sioux.
It is an exciting tale with action all the way.
Custer believed he had found word of gold in the Black Hills of Dakota. He kept the news to himself but went about his manoeuvres thereafter with that in mind. But the news of the gold find brought a rush of prospectors to the area and the possibility of trouble with the Sioux Indians who believed the land was theirs.
The prospectors were labelled 'The Rainbowers' caused trouble and the army continually tried to keep them out of the Sioux land, knowing that if they did not do so, trouble and possibly war would follow. They succeeded to a degree but the army sent soldiers into the Black Hills to sort matters out. But by this time Crazy Horse had declared that there would be war.
And so there was and Custer's far from understandable tactics are called into question once more as Sitting Bull wiped out Custer and his men, despite the strictures that Custer had received as to not going into battle with the Sioux.
It is an exciting tale with action all the way.
Displaying 1 of 1 review