For ten years,
the U.S. Army undertook an experiment bringing camels to Texas. It is a
fascinating period of American history that touches on the war with Mexico,
westward expansion, the Civil War, Native Americans, and Route 66.
So why were
there camels in Texas?
Due to the
Mexican cession of 1848, the United States had spread to the Pacific Ocean.
Much of this new territory in the southern region was desert, creating an
obstacle for transporting and supporting military troops in the frontier and protecting
and assisting settlers as they trekked westward. The California Gold Rush had
brought tens of thousands of migrants to the west coast, but there were few
routes available and the journey was treacherous with threat of Native American
raids, not to mention the lack of water. An idea was proposed to Secretary of
War Jefferson Davis (future President of the Confederate States of America) to
import camels into the land to test their possible utilization for military purposes.
In 1855, it was approved and government funding allowed two overseas
expeditions to secure camels from the Mediterranean region and deliver them
into Texas through the port of Indianola, along with their Arab camel handlers
in May 1856 and February 1857.
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| “Camels secured for a gale,” by Gwinn Harris Heap, from Information Respecting the Purchase of Camels for the Purposes of Military Transportation, 1857 |
Maj. Henry C. Wayne undertook some initial trials with the camels to determine their strength and durability which immediately showcased their superiority over the current beats of burden actively employed by the Army. Wayne reported these findings and consistently advocated for a breeding program to fully integrate the use of camels for the Army, but it was repeatedly denied. The herd of approximately 70 camels would grow slowly.
Originally, the camels were housed a few miles away from the famous Alamo which served as the quartermaster depot in San Antonio. Wayne quickly discovered the curiosity that followed these unique animals was too distracting so he searched for a better location, settling on Camp Verde in the Hill Country. This cavalry frontier post had been established to mount quick responses to Native American actions in the area. The frontier post was soon nicknamed “Little Egypt” and it became very common to see Army camels plodding into San Antonio to pick up supplies at the quartermaster depot and return to the hills.
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| Thomas Lovell - “Camels in Texas” Courtesy of the Abell-Hanger Foundation and the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum, Library and Hall of Fame of Midland, Texas |
To put the camels to use and truly test their capabilities for Army service, three main expeditions were undertaken. The first was with Edward F. Beale in 1857 to scout a wagon road from New Mexico territory near Albuquerque to the Colorado River. This has been a well-researched portion of the camel experiment with links to transport and westward expansion.[1] Beale took half the herd and for the remainder of the experiment these camels would be in California. The route he built with the camels would later become Route 66 and modern-day Interstate-40. Later, two summer expeditions were undertaken: one to survey the land in Big Bend country with 2nd Lieutenants William H. Echols & Edward L. Hartz in 1859. The last expedition with the camels returned to Big Bend attempting to locate a possible fort location, again led by Echols in 1860. Other than a few reports of these Big Bend expeditions, there has been little investigation to the experience and its connection to the line of frontier forts across Texas as the United States continued expanding and clashing with the Native Americans. Perhaps some new information or untapped correspondence will be uncovered in the research.
All of these expeditions concluded
with high praise for the camels. The men were quite surprised with their
utility. Combing through government reports illustrates the opinions of the men
who worked with the animals. The functionality of camels was proven in the
Southwest. Requests were submitted to import more camels to establish a proper herd
and better develop their use for the military.
It would never
come to pass.
In 1861, the
Civil War broke out and Federal property in the south was surrendered to the
Confederacy, including the camels in Texas. This is the beginning of the end
for the camel experiment as half the herd was in California, the other half in
Texas. It is here that scholarship is lacking on the camel experiment and has
become the current focus of the dissertation.
The hope is to
uncover additional documentation at archives and other repositories on what happened
with the camels in Confederate-controlled Texas during the Civil War. Very
little is known on those four years and there has not been dedicated research
to find an answer. So far, from Rip Ford’s Texas, scholars are aware
that the Confederates were instructed to make the camels serviceable to
military use and something was attempted.[2] What that effort was is
unknown. Loose references are given about using the camels for transporting
mail and supplies into and back from Mexico. However, the endeavors were abandoned
and the camels were largely left at Camp Verde to their own devices and for local
amusement. Another avenue of research leads to Bethel Coopwood, Captain of a Confederate
reconnaissance company during Sibley’s New Mexico campaign who is possibly
linked to the camels before he buys them at auction for his own enterprises
after the war.
The end of the
Civil War is the end of the government’s camel experiment. Army leadership
decided to auction off the camels as they were not being effectively managed
for the benefit of the military. Also, strong Confederate connections made it
unpopular to maintain. Technology was advancing and sights were set on
railroads for transport in the southwest. The work of Harlan D. Fowler profoundly
expands on this portion of the experiment that follows the use of the Army
camels after they were sold.[3] Until the 1920’s there
were reports of feral camels wandering in the southwest leading to interesting
legends. Today, little remains of this interesting piece of American history
though some historic sites continue to share the story and hold untold accounts
in their archives.
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| A U.S. Army camel stands outside the Drum Barracks at the Wilmington Harbor outside Los Angeles, circa 1861/63. Photo credit: Rudolph D’Heureuse - Public Domain |
The research
plan is to access the various repositories to find connections and accounts of
people associated with the camels to fill in the gaps of the camel experiment.
Some recent scholarship links the camel experiment to efforts of illegal
international slave trading which requires more evaluation. After several years
of studying the camel experiment and gathering a larger comprehension of events
of the mid-nineteenth century, an updated overview of the endeavor within the
context of westward expansion would be beneficial to the field and of specific importance to Texas history.
[1]
Stephen Bonsal, Edward Fitzgerald Beale, A Pioneer in the Path of Empire,
1822-1903 (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1912); Odie B. Faulk, The U.S.
Camel Corps: An Army Experiment (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976); Lewis
B. Lesley (ed)., Uncle Sam’s Camels: The Journal of May Humphreys Stacey
Supplemented by the Report of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, 1857-1858
(Cambridge: Harvard University, 1929).
[2]
John Salmon Ford, Rip Ford’s Texas, ed. Stephen B. Oates (Austin:
University of Texas Press, 1991).
[3]
Harlan D. Fowler, Three Caravans to Yuma: The Untold Story of the Bactrian
Camels in Western America (Glendale: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1980); Harlan
D. Fowler, Camels to California: A Chapter in Western Transportation
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1950).
