The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-24
UNCLE SANS CAMEL HERD.
CURIOUS STORY OF THE GOVERN
MENI'S ATTEMPT
To Domestioate the Camel In Arizona.

To Domesticate the Camel In Arizona.
Comparatively few people know that
the United States at one time brought
a large herd of camels to the south
west for army uses, and that a hoary
decrepit remnant of the herd has been
wandering in southern Arizona and
New Mexico until recently. The impor-
tatlon OF camels was advised in the
early 50's, when there was a great mi
grafton to the newly-found gold fields
in California. Trains of oxen, horses
and mules, wagons loaded with human
beings, household effects and provi-
s1ons, moved in slow procession from
Texas and Missouri across the burning
deserts of the southwest on to the new
El Dorado. Transcontinental railroads
were hardly dreamed of in those days,
and the army was principally occupied
in the west
Lieutenant Edward f. Beale, after
ward brigader-g general and minister
| to Austria while stationed at old Fort
Yuma, on the border between Callfor-
MIA and Arizona and on the edge of the
! Colorado desert, saw one of the streams
of migration passing by. There was
/ so much disease and suffering and
death among the horses and mules that
he cast about in his mind for other an
imals of transport, and came to the
opinion that camels could be used to in
estimable advantage. SO he, in con-
nection with Captain Adams of the
garrison, wrote at length on the mat
| ter to Jefferson Davis, the secretary of
war, tnclosing pictures showing the
different uses to which the ship Of the
desert" might be put-carrying field
cannon, hauling caissons and convey
ing sharpshooters al brisk trot to the
front of an engagement.
The ideas of the young officers were
enthusiastically received by Mr.. Davis,
and a commission was soon sent out
from San Antonio, Tex, to Arizona to
ascertain the military uses to which
camels could be put in the southwest.
The commission made a favorable re-
port, and the outcome was q bill APP
propriating thirty thousand dollars for
the purchase and importation of cam
els
In December, 1854 Major c. Wayne
was sent to Egypt and Arabia to buy
seventy-five camels, He purchased the
first lot in Cairo. Having taken In
these the naval store-ship Supply
sailed to Smyrna and thirty cames of
another variety and from the Arabian
desert were bought These cost from
seventy-five dollars to three hundred
dollars each, something more than had
hpnI maid M low t1bn |
Supply loaded with camels and fodder, |
reached its port on the Gulf of Mexico |
on February 10, 1857. Three had died |
during the voyage and sixty-two re- |
maned well and hearty The strange |
beasts Were laboriously landed In the |
course of several days. Under the care |
of Captain j. N. Palmer about half the |
herd were takwen inland to Camp |
Verde, where they began their military |
service for Uncle Sam. The others |
were kept at Indlanola. where 1t was
proposed to experiment with them as
beasts of burden in moving army sup |
plies In arid regions.
In Texas and the territories are men
who to this day tell amusing stories of
the attempts to use camels in the army
A series of experiments in
testing the physical strength and the
ability to go long distances In hot
weather without water were made. |
Baskets and hampers of provisions of
great weight were experimentally
dashed to the camels' backs. But from
the first the hostIers and stablemen
were opposed to having anything to do
with the strange beasts; teamsters de-
clined to transport provisions across
the deserts with them; the horses in
the cavalry became FESTIVE and ugly I
when stabbed or corraled with them
The animals were not properly cared
for Several died. In vain the army
1Tcers urged the hostlers to give the
,amels a fair trial There were fire.
1uent reports that one or two had bro
zen away during the night and wan
Tered away across sandy plains, and it
1as been suspected that extraordinary !
zeal was not always put forth to find t
he animals and bring them back for
military service.
From May 1858, until 1861, some thr-
y of them, which had become partly l
to American ways and
adapted to the climate of the south
vest, were kept at the United STATES |
orts at Verde, FL Paso and Yuma.
they were fed and cared for at the
Expense of the war department, but be-
ause the troopers and Transfers in the
ervce could not be induced or forced
o use the beasts, instead Of horses and 4
mules, and especially because of the
lumsineas of the camels' harness and J
he unusual labor in packing and pre-
,aring ship of the desert" for ser
ice. they were seldom used, In the
asst year or two Of their stay at the
arrisons they were merely pensioners
pom Uncle Sans bounty, and were
ever brought into service.
Then the civil war came on, and in
he stir and wild excitement of those
avs in every army fort, all attention
ras turned from the camels. The forts ,
4 Texas and Arizona fell into diSuse,
nd the beasts We're allowed to wander
way at will. They Travelled in pairs,
nd sometimes in punches of four and
TX. across the deserts and into the
fountains Some lived for years in |
he Panhandle of Texas, and in a few
a a n south