In 1855, America was expanding its horizons. Not only were we working to make our Manifest Destiny a reality, we were also deepening our interest in other countries.
The young Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis (yes, that Jeff Davis) decided that America's military was missing something. Because he hadn't yet hit upon the idea of a new country for them to fight, he settled for the next best thing- camels.
He got the idea from Maj. George Crosman, who had wanted camels to be used for transport during the Mexican War (1846-48). The explorer Josiah Harlan was also a big fan of the idea.
Congress granted $30.000 ($713.000 today) for the government to buy camels in 1855. In May 1856, Maj. Henry Wayne returned from Egypt and the Ottoman Empire with 34 camels. They were taken to Texas, and used to patrol/wander around the American Southwest. Over the next decade, at least 77 camels were imported to the States.
The experiment was considered a success, though the poor souls who had to hang out with the camels remarked that were absolute divas: they reeked, liked to spit and regurgitate food, had razor-sharp teeth, were often aggressive, and were generally ill-tempered little buggers. Despite that, they were given props for their adaptability and endurance. I don't know what would have constituted a failure- maybe someone getting his face eaten by a camel with an attitude problem in a fit of pique.
The lead camel driver was Hadji Ali, a Syrian who was called "Hi Jolly" by his American companions, unable to correctly make a glottal stop. He stayed in the US until his death in 1902.
Lt. Edward Beale was the officer in charge of the camels in the States. He was absolutely and inexplicably enamored with them. He gushed, "I look forward to the day when every mail route across the continent will be conducted and worked altogether with this economical and noble brute." He neglected to mention, however, how gross they were, that they couldn't walk over rocky soil, and that horses and mules were absolutely terrified of them. He convinced several Congressmen to lobby for the immediate purchase of 1000 additional Dromedary (one-hump, or Arabian) camels.
I have never personally met a camel, but I have read the memoirs of TE Lawrence, the only Westerner to use camels to achieve any kind of military success, and possibly the person most associated with riding camels. (The Wise Men may have him beat, but they didn't pen memoirs.) Even Lawrence, who loved hanging out with the Bedouin, had little praise for their camels. In Seven Pillars of Wisdom, he says: "I hated the beasts, for too much food made their breath stink; and they rumblingly belched up a new mouthful from their stomachs each time they had chewed and swallowed the last, till a green slaver flooded out between their loose lips over the side teeth, and dripped down their sagging chins. Lying angrily there, I threw a stone at the nearest, which got up and wavered about behind my head: finally it straddled its back legs and staled in wide, bitter jets; and I was so far gone with the heat and weakness and pain that I just lay there and cried about it unhelping." Only twice in his massive memoir does he admit to crying: once over his disgusting camel, and once when he is tortured by the Turks.
Despite the hilarity of the US Camel Corps, alas, it was not to be. Jefferson Davis killed his own pet project when he became president of the Confederacy in 1861. Though I doubt the demise of the Camel Corps was the first and foremost thing on his mind during the Civil War.
Oddly enough, the camels stuck around until the end of the war, when most of them were put up for sale at $31 apiece ($417 today).
Five of them were bought by Ringling Bros. Circus, but beyond that, the camels were playing to a niche market. The Canadians bought several of them, to attempt their own cavalry experiment. It was an even more astounding failure than the American effort. Many were set free, in both countries. Sightings of feral camels in the Southwest continued until at least 1941, when one was seen near Douglas, Texas, and in British Columbia until the late 1930s.
For a firsthand account of life among the camels, read the report by Lt. William H Echols to Congress.
No Prisoners,
Callie R
Photos from: Roots Web, National Parks Traveler, Weird CA, The Blog of Teresa.
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