US Camel Corps

Camels in Benicia , Northern California. The building, which was initially built as a warehouse in 1855, was only used for a short time to accommodate camels, as the Camel Corps was dissolved again after the end of the Civil War. Today the building shown houses the Benicia Historical Museum .

The US Camel Corps was a 1856 capped with camels equipped replenishment Association of the United States Army . Despite the initial success of the pack animals used in the southwest of the United States , problems with the use of the camels together with other pack animals such as horses and mules became apparent from the beginning of the experiment . After the end of the American Civil War , the Camel Corps was dissolved and the remaining camels were auctioned off to private individuals.

history

The foundation of the association

Loading of camels (Engl. Embarkation [sic] of Camels ), illustration of Gwinn heap for a report from Jefferson Davis to the US Congress from 1857.

The idea of ​​using camels in the United States Army goes back to George H. Crosman , an officer in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps . Crosman believed that camels were better at transporting packaged loads than horses and mules in hot and dry regions of the United States. Crosman's friend Henry C. Wayne , who also served as an officer in the Quartermaster Corps, contacted Jefferson Davis , who, in his position as Secretary of War, presented a report on the matter to the United States Congress in 1852 . In his remarks to Congress, Davis wrote,

"For military purposes, for express transports, for reconnaissance and for transport, the camel would remove an obstacle that is currently severely limiting the value and efficiency of our troops on the western border."

Davis convinced Congressmen that camels were ideal for use in the American Southwest , and that the fearsome appearance of the animals would have a positive effect on the battle with the Southwest Indian tribes.

In 1855, Congress allocated $ 30,000 to purchase camels. This money was used to buy the first 33 camels for the US Army in Egypt and the Ottoman Empire . In the summer of 1856, the animals arrived in Indianola , Texas , after a three-month ship passage .

First US Camel Corps deployment and problems

The shipped to America camels it was dromedary and Bactrian camels . While the single-humped dromedaries were able to achieve a faster speed when used as mounts, the two-humped trampoline animals were better suited to carrying loads due to their higher resilience.

These properties were first tested in 1857 under the leadership of Edward F. Beale . Beale, first in command of the US Camel Corps, had distinguished himself in the Mexican-American War and was an excellent expert on the American Southwest. Under his leadership, the association's task was to develop a covered wagon route between Fort Deviante in New Mexico and Fort Tejon north of Los Angeles . The link was intended to link the west and east of the country and was the result of a petition from sixty thousand settlers to the United States Congress.

The first use of the camels largely confirmed the hopes placed in them. The animals withstood the extreme weather conditions, carried large amounts of water and provisions for the soldiers accompanying them and even seemed unimpressed by the snow in the Sierra Nevada . At the same time, however, there were also problems that were difficult to get under control. Horses and mules that were brought along found it difficult to get used to the intense smell of the camels and sometimes showed violent reactions when they got too close to the strange animals. Camels ran away at regular intervals and could only be recaptured with difficulty; Contemporary reports also suggest that the cavalrymen, who were anything but enthusiastic about the stubborn camels, did not always show the necessary zeal to bring the animals back to the troops. The Indians, after all, were by no means intimidated by the animals, but considered them valuable enough to steal.

The end of the Camel Corps

With the outbreak of the American Civil War and the improvements in general transport conditions through the expansion of railway lines, the end of the experiment was initiated after just a few years. The US Camel Corps was largely forgotten and the animals left over after the end of the war were auctioned off to private owners. Edward Beale's favorite animal, a white dromedary named "Seid", died in a fight with another camel. His bones are on display in a Smithsonian Institution museum to this day . There were sightings of runaway specimens until the first half of the 20th century; Animals living in the wild were finally declared extinct in 1919.

literature

Newer representations

• Ellen Baumler: When Camels Came Back to Montana , in: Montana: The Magazine of Western History 50, 2 (2000), pp. 64-71.
• Odie B. Faulk: The US Camel Corps: An Army Experiment , New York, NY, 1976.

Older representations

• Fred S. Perrine: Uncle Sam's Camel Corps , in: The New Mexico Historical Review 1, 4 (1926), pp. 434-444, available online from Google Books .
• Henry O. Tinsley: Camels in the Colorado Desert , in: Out West 5/6 (1896), pp. 148-150, available online from Google Books.

Web links

Commons : US Camel Corps  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The US Army Camel Corps, 1855–1866 , from the US Army Transportation Museum website, last accessed January 4, 2013.
• Chuck Woodbury: US Camel Corps remembered in Quartzsite, Arizona , in: Out West Newspaper 18 (2003), last accessed January 1, 2013.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. The US Army Camel Corps, 1855–1866 ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , from the US Army Transportation Museum website, last accessed January 4, 2013.
2. ^ "For military purposes, for expresses, and for reconnoissances [sic], and for transportation [...] across the country, the camel [...] would remove an obstacle which now serves greatly to diminish the value and efficiency of our troops on the western frontier. ”, in: Report of the Secretary of War , 1853, 33d Cong., 1st sess., 1853-54, H. Doc. 1, vol. 1, pt. 2., serial 711, p. 25, quoted here from Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 64.
3. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 64.
4. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 67.
5. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 67.
6. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 67 and Henry O. Tinsley, Camels in the Colorado Desert , p. 149.
7. ^ Henry O. Tinsley, Camels in the Colorado Desert , p. 149.
8. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 68.
9. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 68.
10. ↑ See the photo under Archived Copy ( Memento of the original dated November 10, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Ellen Baumler, When Camels Came Back to Montana , p. 71.