Edward F. Beale

Edward F. Beale

Edward Fitzgerald Beale (born February 4, 1822 in Washington, DC , † April 22, 1893 there ) was an American officer, diplomat and explorer.

Life

Beale's father, George, was a paymaster in the United States Navy and was awarded the Medal of Congressional for his services in the British-American War of 1812. His mother Emily was a daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxtun . Edward first studied at Georgetown College and then was admitted to the Navy Officers School, where he graduated in 1842. He then served on various ships, but was also used as a messenger in important government business. In 1846 he received his first command of his own.

Since the American-Mexican War began at the same time , Beale was used on land. After the battle of San Pasqual , which the Americans lost , he succeeded in breaking through the Mexican lines together with Kit Carson and an Indian scout and summoning reinforcements for the trapped army of General Stephen W. Kearny .

Over the next three years, Beale crossed the country between the frontline and Washington more than six times to exchange messages between the army and political leaders. On one of these trips, in 1848, he brought the first news of the gold discoveries in California to Washington. In 1849 he married Mary Edwards, the daughter of the deputies Samuel Edwards from Pennsylvania . In 1850 he was promoted to lieutenant , in 1851 he left the Navy.

Beale went to California where he worked as a manager. But in 1853 he returned to government service, this time as Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada . The government asked him for 250,000 dollars available and the California governor appointed him to brigadier general of the militia (predecessor of the National Guard ) to its position for negotiations with the Indians to strengthen.

From 1857 to 59 Beale undertook two expeditions through the Arizona desert (see: US Army Camel Corps ). In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln named him General Surveyor for California and Nevada, even though Beale had applied for a post in the Army . There he made outstanding efforts to keep California in the Union. After the Civil War , he retired to his country estate in Bakersfield, California. In 1870 he bought another estate, the Decatur House in Washington DC

In 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him to succeed Godlove Stein Orth as envoy in Austria-Hungary , but after only one year he resigned from this office. He later applied for the post of Secretary of War under President Chester A. Arthur , but did not receive it.

The US Army Camel Corps

Tomb of Hajji Ali in Arizona, ca.1940

In 1857, President James Buchanan commissioned Beale to trek from New Mexico to Colorado . On this trek, an experiment initiated by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis (later President of the Confederate States ) was carried out, namely the use of camels in the Arizona desert. To this end, 25 (other sources speak of 33) camels were imported from Tunisia , whose suitability as pack animals was to be tested. With them came a cameleer of Greek origin from Tunis named Philippos Tedros, whose Arabic name was Hajji Ali. A second trek with 41 other camels was started in 1858/59. The results of Beale and the head of the project, Major Wayne, were more than satisfactory, but the rest of the animals and the soldiers did not get along with the camels; According to eyewitness reports, the camels also frightened the mules of prospectors and settlers who the camels z. Sometimes just shot. The Army saw the project as a failure and released the animals in the Arizona desert, where they were an attraction for many years to come. Hajji Ali stayed in America and died in 1902.

Afterlife

After Beale, among others, have been Beale Air Force Base and the Beale Mountains named in California.