MYTHICAL FORT TEJON "CAMEL CORPS"
At Fort Tejon,
camels were NOT an essential element of the Fort's
history. Camels were at the Fort for only 5-1/2
months, from Nov. 17, 1859 to mid April 1860. The
camels were never used by the soldiers at Fort
Tejon. They were government property and were kept
here only a short time during the winter of 1859/60
before being moved to the Los Angeles Quartermaster
Depot on their way to Benicia where they were auctioned
off at a loss to the Government in 1864.
Tejon was never any "Terminus" for
the camels. There was never a "U.S. Camel
Corps" as has been stated by so many authors;
it was just an experiment. E.F. Beale was a civilian
under contract to survey a road from New Mexico
to California by the U.S. Government. He was
never in command of Fort Tejon, the camels or
The camels have
been one of the greatest myths and legends of Fort
Tejon's past. The story is great and many writers have
latched on to it. It is great stuff for western lore,
but most stories about this interesting experiment
have little grounding in fact. Unfortunately, many
writers are perpetuating these myths and rely on the
early authors that wrote in the 1920s to 1960s who
based their research and assertions on non-historical
THE CAMEL EXPERIMENT
victories and settlements of the Mexican-American War
increased the expanse of the territorial United States.
To control and protect this new territory and the new
citizens encompassed within its boundaries or rapidly
moving into the new territories, the government deployed
the vast majority of the U.S. Army. Quickly, Congress
and the War Department became appalled at the unexpected
new cost of simply supplying the outposts scattered
over the new region. The transportation cost of the
Quartermaster Department alone was more than the entire
pre-war budget for the whole of the United States Army.
were great, and often now through arid or semi-arid
country. The Army posts, once conveniently established
along waterways and supplied cheaply by contract steamboats,
were now hundreds of miles from water. This meant expensive
civilian contracts with drayage companies or even more
expensive government owned wagon trains managed, operated
and maintained by large numbers of employed civilians,
paid at the prevailing wage - which out west was several
times higher than eastern wages. The expenses seemed
never to stop. Army wagon trains, using mules or oxen,
needed regularly spaced repair, water and feed depots.
Water and feed points were necessary at least a days
journey apart and had to be resupplied either by Army
contract or supply trains. If local farmers could not
deliver forage, hay and grain, to given points, then
the Army had to buy it at one point and stock the feeding
points or it had to carry feed for the animals which
were pulling the freight Wagons. This often meant a
ratio of two forage wagons to every freight wagon.
If a train was outbound for a destination which could
not supply livestock feed for the return journey and
grazing along the route was minimal, then empty wagons
(actually partially loaded wagons for the animals pulling
them had to be fed) would start back for a depot point,
to load up with forage to meet the homeward bound wagon
column. If timely contact was not effected, costly
government mules (or oxen) would die. And the feared
auditors in Washington, D.C. would want to know why.
the motion picture image of the western Army on the
frontier, the biggest problems were not "wild
Indians" or "renegade Mexican bandits".
They were transportation, forage, live drayage animals
and a constant demand for economy.
by a hope for improved and economical transport across
the more arid sections of the west, the U.S. Government
dusted off an old plan to experiment with camels as
freight animals. Some 75 Mediterranean camels were
imported in the mid-1850s and delivered to an Army
quartermaster at CampVerde, Texas.
legend has overshadowed the real story of the camel
experiment. There never was a "Camel Corps";
Edward F. Beale was never appointed to command a camel
corps, and Fort Tejon, California, was never the headquarters
of the non-existent "camel corps." There
is myth and reality about the Army's camels, and the
truth is a more interesting story than the fiction
which surrounds the story. Over developed romantic
fiction has the Army using the camels to haul freight,
regularly to carry the mail, and for active patrols
against bandits and hostile Indians. In reality, very
little of this actually happened or was true.
trips east across the Great American Desert, Gwin Harris
Heap, a proselytizing convert to the idea of camels
as a cheap transportation methodology for the American
west, foisted upon Edward F. Beale the recently published
book by the Abbe Huc, Travels in Tartary, Tibet and
China, During the Years 1844, 1845 and 1846. While
Beale later claimed be was immediately captivated by
the journal, at the time the opposite was true. It
seemed to have made no impression upon him. In fact,
Beale may have considered Heap somewhat a pushy zealot
of a relative, for they later parted ways under less
than happy circumstances.
Heap became the proponent of camel transportation and
ultimately the buyer of camels when the U.S. Navy was
ordered to acquire camels from Turkey and Egypt and
bring them to Texas. Nowhere in government correspondence
of the time is to be found any advocacy for the use
of camels originating with Edward F. Beale.In fact,
when Beale won the contract for a re-survey and road
development along the 35th Parallel, Secretary of War
John B. Floyd ordered Beale to take 25 camels to California
(and return with them) as part of the expedition. Beale
exploded in anger and in ink to the Secretary. He protested
mightily and insisted that Floyd was wrong to order
him to use the camels. Secretary Floyd stood firm:
he wanted to see what these expensive forage burners,
lounging about Camp Verde outside of San Antonio could
do. Reluctantly Beale, who had no choice, traveled
to Camp Verde, Texas, and picked up the 25 camels.
majority of the foreign laborers hired by the U.S.
Navy to work with the camels were Greek urbanites from
the streets of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul)
who had no experience in the employment of camels.
They had seen a free ride to the United States, where
it was rumored the streets were paved with gold and
it was a true land of flowing milk and honey. The two
Turks who were hired by the Navy, and actually knew
how to handle camels were soon disillusioned by the
flat Texas prairies. They wanted to go home. The Navy
contract specified that all foreigners associated with
the camels coming to Texas were to work six months
and then, if they wished, be discharged, given a bonus,
and transported home for free by the Navy. The two
Turks went home. This meant that the Greeks available
to Beale were absolute novices in handling the camels.
Bactrian camel onboard ship in Turkey
Sketch by G. H. Heap, National Archives
soon discovered this flaw, to his anger as his correspondence
to the Secretary of War points out The Greeks seemed
untrainable and totally incompetent, but in time several
mastered their new chore and went on to a long historic,
association with the camels which came west. The others
departed the scene upon arriving in California, leaving
a confusing trail for the historian to follow. Three
of the men had names similar to George (Georgics, Georgious
and Georges) and only one emerged out of the confusion
as "Greek George": Georges Caralambo.
of the other Greeks also had similar names: Hadji Alli
and Hadagoi Alli. While Hadji Alli became historically
known as "Hi Jolly", the other Alli disappeared
after leaving behind a total confusion caused by the
numerous ways his name could be spelled. All five floated
through the story of the camels until about December
1859, when government records clarified only two were
still in view: "Greek George" and "Hi
his initial outrage, Beale did develop an appreciation
of the camels' ability, docility and temperament. He
gained trust in the animals' patience; camels would
not stampede, while mules scattered to the four winds.
The camels did have to be watched. While they would
not run in fright, they would amble about for miles
to feed. By the time Beale's expedition reached California,
Beale was a believer in the camels' worth.
did not mean, however, that Beale was totally honest
in his report to the government over the camels' usefulness.
He failed to report that be had lost three camels,
the expense of which would have been deducted from
the contract's final financial settlement. And he failed
to report that the Mojave Desert's rocky soil nearly
crippled the animals' soft hooves. They were bred for
work in the softer, sand-gravel deserts of the eastern
also ignored orders to bring the camels back to New
Mexico. Using the lame excuse that the camels would
be invaluable if the troops in California were to become
involved in the "Mormon War", then seeming
to be a reality on the Pacific Coast, Beale left the
camels with his business partner, Samuel A. Bishop,
and hurried home in early January 1858.
homeward journey created another myth, whereby in later
years Beale adopted a heroic leadership which does
not match the historic correspondence of the time.
Once again Beale had outlived the other participants
and this allowed him to tell his version of the story
without eyewitness contradictions. So "the story" became "history".
Beale remembered it, he departed Los Angeles in early
January 1858, with a group of dragoons to protect "him" to
the Colorado River. When he reached the river, "he" stopped
a river steamer and ordered it to ferry him and his
men across the river. "He" had brought along
ten camels to carry forage for his mules and then "he" sent
the camels back to Fort Tejon in case of war in Utah.
It is a great heroic tale and you can find it in all
the biographies on Beale, but it only happened that
way in Beale's imagination, 28 years later.
Beale was moving west in the early fall of 1857, the
U. S. government was moving troops westward against
the Mormon colony in Utah. In California, the Mojave
and Salt Lake Road connected Los Angeles, San Bernardino
and Salt Lake City. The majority of citizens in, southern
California harbored strong anti-Mormon attitudes. While
pending "war news" filtered into California
along the Salt Lake Road, a fantastic set of rumors
emerged that the Mormons departing California were
smuggling tons of firearms toward the Utah colony.
The newspapers reflected these rumors by playing them
to the hilt, often with wild embellishments. Added
to the gunrunning rumors were others, particularly
that Mormon special agents were organizing the desert
Indians to attack "Gentile" parties crossing
the Mojave Desert into southern Utah (now southern
the Army in San Francisco did not put much faith in
these rumors, it decided to launch an investigation.
Major George A. H. Blake, then senior 1st U. S. Dragoon
officer in California, was ordered to take a large
patrol out along the Mojave Road and to examine these
rumors. His orders also included closing the 1st Dragoon
headquarters which had been at Mission San Diego since
August of 1857, and relocating them at Fort Tejon at
the end of the expedition. The Department headquarters
also informed Blake that on the way he should meet
Beale, who was returning east, at Cajon Pass and escort
him as far as the Colorado River. Blake received his
orders in mid-December of 1857 and immediately wrote
an order to 2nd Lieut. John T. Mercer, commanding Company
F at Fort Tejon, to join him at Cajon Pass.
Blake's orders reached Los Angeles in the midst of
a driving rainstorm, a freak break in weather during
the two year old drought torturing southern California.
First Lieut. William T. Magruder, the commanding officer
at Fort Tejon, was doing Army business in Los Angeles
when the correspondence from San Diego arrived. Despite
the miserable weather, he attempted to return to Fort
Tejon. It took him four muddy days and a broken wagon
to get across the San Fernando Valley. Then, once in
the mountains, he was caught in a wind-whipped blizzard
and nearly lost his way in a world of blowing snow.
On January 2, 1858 he finally managed to reach Fort
Tejon, buried in snow, where he informed Lieut. Mercer
of the task before him.
Beale was in Los Angeles, organizing his return trip.
He had brought ten camels to the pueblo to haul forage
for his mules, leaving the other twelve at Bishop 's
Ranch - not at Fort Tejon. At Mission San Diego, Major
Blake immediately organized his part of the expedition
and, despite the weather, moved out with Dragoon headquarters
staff, band and part of the escort detachment of Company
F troopers left behind when the company had relocated
to Fort Tejon in late August. To guard company and
regimental property at the old Mission, Blake left
a small detachment of many F troopers. He hurried on
his way, assuming that Mercer would also be on the
move. Blake was an impatient, headstrong martinet,
who listened only to his own opinion. He reached Cajon
Pass on New Year's Eve 1858, and gloweringly looked
northward for Mercer's approaching column. As Blake
stood on the eastern flank of Cajon Pass, Mercer had
not even heard yet that he was ordered to join Blake.
Mercer took his time obeying the orders from Blake.
The weather was impossible. It snowed and snowed and
the snow, driven by terrible winds, piled up ten foot
drifts along the route to Antelope Valley and Los Angeles.
Finally, four days into the new year, Mercer moved
his men out. He did not taDuring 1858, Bishop continued
to use the camels privately. He hauled freight to his
own ranch and to the developing town of Fort Tejon,
located three-fourths of a mile south of the Army post.
He did not haul Army freight, for Phineas Banning of
New San Pedro had won the quartermaster contract once
again. Banning held the contract until the Los Angeles
Depot was finished in mid-1859 and then the Army hauled
its own freight, often with Banning contracted to make
up the shortages in mules and wagons.ajon Pass. He
joined a very angry major Blake on January 10, 1858.
F. Beale was also detained by the weather and by the
afternoon of January 10, had not reached Blake 's camp
at Cajon Pass. The next morning, Blake took up the
march over the Mojave Road for the Colorado River.
Beale was at least thirty hours behind Blake and never
caught up. When Blake reached the river he hailed an
exploring river steamer and requested it to wait. Beale
finally arrived, ferried his men and mules over the
Colorado and sent the camels back with Samuel Bishop
to Bishop's ranch in the lower San Joaquin Valley.
Blake, moving fast, led the way back and took his own
command on to Fort Tejon.
1858, Bishop continued to use the camels privately.
He hauled freight to his own ranch and to the developing
town of Fort Tejon, located three-fourths of a mile
south of the Army post. He did not haul Army freight,
for Phineas Banning of New San Pedro had won the quartermaster
contract once again. Banning held the contract until
the Los Angeles Depot was finished in mid-1859 and
then the Army hauled its own freight, often with Banning
contracted to make up the shortages in mules and wagons.
few immigrants to use the poorly developed 35th Parallel
wagon road were harassed by Mojave Indians at the Colorado
Crossing (Beale's Crossing). None of the immigrants
were able to cross and they turned back. To protect
the new route, the government ordered a fort to be
established near the northern crossing of the Colorado
William Hoffman, 6th U.S. Infantry, led a reconnaissance
in January 1859. He was escorted by dragoons of Companies
K and B from Fort Tejon. There was trouble with Mojaves
at the river; the dragoons killed perhaps a dozen and
Hoffman recommended to San Francisco a full scale campaign
from Fort Yuma against the Mojave Indians. Hoffman
requested a depot be placed at Los Angeles to haul
supplies for his expedition across the desert; the
War Department approved and ordered Captain W. S. Hancock
to Los Angeles. Knowing it would take Hancock time
to organize his wagon trains, Major Hoffman requested
that the Army take charge of the camels and use them
to haul supplies an the desert. The Secretary of War
refused Hoffman's request, stating that the camel experiment
was in the hands of civilians in California and would
remain so. Hoffman's expedition went forth without
the meantime, Beale had been ordered by the government
to improve the 35th Parallel wagon road and to do it
right this time. Immigrants had complained about the
road, saying it was not in reality what Beale's propaganda
said it was. For this second expedition, Beale was
assigned 25 more camels, which worked well along the
route. These 25 camels did not cross into California.
At the same time, Bishop was using the original camels
to haul freight for Beale's work crews, and his own.
had several large skirmishes with the Mojave, who were
willing to attack civilians but not the soldiers. Possibly
the skirmish with the dragoons had taught the Mojave
a mild lesson, or it could be they were surprised by
the numbers of soldiers along the river. The civilians
were fewer in number. Hoffman, having fought no Mojave,
concluded peace, established his fort (to become Fort
Mojave) and withdrew, leaving many warlike Mojaves
still out in the desert, eager to kill a white man.
of the river, Bishop's men encountered a large force
of Mojaves who showed all signs of wanting an open
battle. Bishop mounted his civilian packers and laborers
onto the camels of this party and charged. They routed
the Mojaves. It was the only camel charge staged in
the west and the Army had nothing to do with it. Then
Bishop moved on eastward to find Beale.
their march home to San Bernardino, Hoffman's troops
ran out of food and allegedly broke into one of Bishop's
buried desert food caches. Three thousand pounds of
food was stolen. Beale was outraged, demanded compensation
and opened a major breach between himself and the Army.
This breach widened and, beginning in the late summer
of 1859, the Quartermaster Department began to demand
that the camels under Bishop's control be turned over
to the Army at Fort Tejon. Finally, on November 17,
1859, Bishop delivered all of the camels but four to
1st Lieutenant Henry B. Davidson of the 1st Dragoons,
regimental and post at Fort Tejon. Davidson hired two
civilians to herd and care for the animals: Hi Jolly
and Greek George. Three of the four missing camels
were found near San Bernardino and finally, after Christmas
of 1859, the fourth was found at Whiskey Flats in the
Kern River gold country.
November 17, 1859, the Army at Fort Tejon took charge
of the camels from Bishop. The post quickly discovered
that most of the camels were in poor physical shape,
with sore backs, and that it was very expensive to
feed 28 camels on hay and barley. In early March 1860,
they were moved to a rented grazing area 12 miles from
the post, under the care of the two herders, Hi Jolly
and Greek George.
of the government projects for the western experiment
of the camels was to see if they would breed and procreate
in the far western territory. The camels, with males
and females intermixed, proved to the Army that they
could procreate, and produce young, strong, healthy
camels. The herd continued to grow, if slowly. There
is a great deal of nonsense written about the brutality
of Army camel herders to their charges. Camels were
reputedly shot dead, bludgeoned to death, or stabbed
to death by their herders or packers. The Army took
a dim view of herders or packers destroying government
property. Camels were expensive, and if a herder, camel
packer, or soldier had killed a camel, he would have
paid for it by deductions from his salary. An examination
of the salaries of herders, packers, and soldiers in
government employment records revealed no such incident.
The death of each camel (those few that died before
1864, when they were sold) is documented in government
quartermaster records in the National Archives. However,
Beale managed to lose a total of 13 camels and also
managed to escape from paying for the animals. In 1861,
the Army at Fort Smith, Arkansas, was still trying
to get back 10 of the camels sent with Beale on the
is also a great deal of undocumented story-telling
on how Army camels frightened and routed herds of government
horses, overturning wagons or dumping troopers on the
hard ground. Attempts to confirm these stories have
not proven fruitful. Rather, Army reports indicated
how regularly the animals blended together in the same
corrals or fields, and tolerated each other with natural
ease. When the camels were introduced to the government
mule corrals at the Fort Tejon Depot in November 1859,
the quartermaster reported no panic, no tumult; in
fact, he was surprised at how easily the animals adapted
to one another. The camels, showing effects from hard
labor, primarily wanted to eat, and they consumed expensive
oats, barley and hay at alarming rates.
House on the Tejon Indian Reservation
Major James H. Carleton of Company K, 1st Dragoons,
refused to use the camels for his Mojave River expedition
in the spring of 1860. The camels, having only joined
the Army in November 1859 and moved to a grazing camp
in March 1860, had not yet recovered from the hard
usage of Samuel Bishop, who had worked them to haul
supplies to Beale's road expedition, his ranch, and
to merchants in the civilian town of Fort Tejon from
New San Pedro and Los Angeles. The camels remained
at the grazing camp 12 miles east of the fort under
the care of two civilian herders, and a small detachment
of soldiers to protect the herders, until September
first official test for camels by the Army in California
was conducted by Captain Winfield S. Hancock, Assistant
Quartermaster in Los Angeles, in an attempt to cut
the expense of messenger service between Los Angeles
and the recently established Fort Mojave on the Colorado
River. This trial, in September 1860, featured the
camel herder Hadji Alli ("Hi Jolly"), riding
a camel like a Pony Express rider, carrying dispatches
for Fort Mojave. One camel dropped dead from exhaustion
at the Fishponds (modern-day Daggett), while a second
attempt to use an "express camel" killed
it at Sugar Loaf (modern-day Barstow). The Army discovered
that while camels died, and it was cheaper, the camels
were no faster than the two-mule buckboard in service
under contract to haul the mail to Fort Mojave. They
also discovered that these camels were not express
animals; they were not bred for speed, but to slowly
carry heavy weights.
the end of September 1860, Hadji Alli and Georges Caralambo
were dropped from Army payrolls, and two former soldiers
were hired as "camel herders" at Fort Tejon,
at a higher salary. Hi jolly was fortunate that he
had been ordered by Captain Hancock to race a camel
to Fort Mojave. He was not held accountable for the
two dead camels and received his full month's pay of
$30.00 for the last month of his employment. Greek
George was fired "for causes", which translated
as stupidity, being unable to read or write, and a
too-frequent fondness for American whiskey.
second experiment, during the early months of 1861,
was again by a government-contracted civilian party.
They were to survey the California-Nevada boundary,
under the leadership of Sylvester Mowry, a former Army
officer and currently a citizen of west New Mexico
Territory. Mowry stayed in Los Angeles fighting a bitter
war with the California State-surveyor and turned the
field work over to J. R. N. Owen. Owen had charge of
four of the camels and hired "Hi Jolly" to
care for them. The expedition went forth to Fort Mojave
with only three camels.
survey was a fiasco, poorly led, poorly organized,
and hopelessly confused. The group was often lost and
never fond the coordinates for the new Nevada-California
boundary line. Instead the expedition drifted into
the northern Mojave Desert and faced disaster in the
barren wilderness. Mules died, equipment was abandoned;
it was only the steady plodding of the camels which
saved the expedition from becoming a fatal exploration
statistic. When they finally struggled over the Sierras
to the village of Visalia it was obvious that the camels
had saved the day.
the end of the survey, the three camels were returned
to Los Angeles. On June 17, 1861, the camels, 31 in
number, of which three were still at the Los Angeles
Quartermaster Depot, were transferred from Fort Tejon
to Captain Hancock at the Los Angeles Depot. There
is no further documentable association of camels with
the later Civil war period at Fort Tejon.
only known photograph of an Army camel. Government
Depot near Banning's Wharf.
McCleave, a former First Sergeant of Company K, 1st
Dragoons, delivered the camel herd to Captain Winfield
S. Hancock on or about the 19th of June 1861. The camels
were placed in the government corrals at the Los Angeles
Quartermaster Depot, where once again they easily mixed
with the government mules. Macleave continued as chief
herder until early August, when Brevet Major James
H. Carleton lured the former sergeant away from Los
Angeles to accept a commission as a Captain in the
forming 1st Battalion of California Cavalry. Emil Fritz,
another former dragoon first sergeant, also traveled
to San Francisco with Carleton to accept a captaincy
in that same battalion. To command the battalion, Carleton,
who would become Colonel of the 1st California Infantry,
gathered in Captain Benjamin Davis of Company K, who
would receive the grade of Lieutenant Colonel of California
Cavalry. Carleton, who was expected to lead an expedition
along the California Trail, wanted his developing cavalry
force commanded by former dragoons. Much to Carleton's
disgust, the Governor appointed a number of men to
be officers in the battalion who did not have mounted
Carleton and comrades boarded a steamer for San Francisco
in early August 1861, they were joined by Captain Hancock
who had turned over the Los Angeles depot to Second
Lieutenant Samuel McKee of the Dragoon regiment. Hancock,
rumored to have received a staff promotion to the rank
of Major at the San Francisco Quartermaster Department
headquarters, took along his chief clerk, leaving his
office and paperwork in disarray. At San Francisco,
Hancock discovered he was authorized a leave of absence
with War Department permission to seek an Ohio senior
officer's commission. Hancock soon had his general's
star and a command moving from Ohio into western Virginia.
McCleave departed for San Francisco, Charles Smith
also gave up his position as assistant camel herder.
McKee then sought out Hadji Alli and Georges Caralambo
and hired them as camel herders for the depot. When
McKee departed for the east with his regiment, the
camels were left in limbo with Alli and Caralambo looking
out for them. They were moved to Camp Latham, in what
today is Culver City, in early December 1861.
The next two years
were a period of frustration for the Army on what to
do with the camels, which continued to eat while some
of the females produced healthy young. When the Los
Angeles depot was transferred to Camp Latham and then
to Wilmington on the establishment of Drum Barracks
in February 1862, the camels went along. For a short
period they were the concern of George C. Alexander,
the former sutler or post trader at Fort Tejon, who
was the first senior clerk and financial accountant
at Drum Barracks. Alexander soon gave up the clerkship,
and the post quartermaster office.
First Lieut. David J. Williamson, 4th Infantry,
California Volunteers, then became the guardian of
the camels. Hadji Alli ("Hi-Jolly") and
Georges Caralambo ("Greek George") continued
to be in charge of direct supervision. The question
was: what to do with the growing and useless herd?
No one wanted, or had time, to bother with them.
Schemes were proposed by the Drum Barracks officers.
A mail express was proposed for the San Pedro to
Fort Yuma run; it was not tried. Then in late 1862
and again in early 1863 there was a proposal, by
Major Clarence Bennett, to carry mail from San Pedro
to Tucson, Arizona. Nothing happened. An irregular
mail express was attempted from San Pedro to Camp
Latham (Culver City) and from Camp Latham on to Los
Angeles. A few trips were made, but then the service
was dropped. Bennett then suggested a mail run to
newly re-opened Fort Mojave on the Colorado River.
The express was tried, but the camel foundered and
died 65 miles from Los Angeles and "Hi-Jolly" once
again carried the mail packet on his back across
the desert on foot to reach the fort on the far side
of the Colorado River.
Major Bennett then proposed sending the camels to Fort
Mojave but Lieut. Williamson, the former acting assistant
at Camp Latham and Drum Barracks, rigorously protested
the move. He could barely feed his own mules, which
were necessary for the operation of the desert fort.
He had no extra forage to feed a small herd of camels.
Furthermore, the camels were unsuited for the rocky
desert roads of the Mojave. The camels' hooves were
too tender; they became lame and were useless. Williamson
declared that Edward Beale had learned this years
ago, but had not reported the truth about his use
of camels on the California desert floor.
At this point Federal Surveyor-General Edward F. Beale
of California and Nevada, from his San Francisco
office, again appeared on the scene. He requested
the use of the camels in order to conduct land surveys
of the uninhabited portions of the new State of Nevada.
Brigadier General George Wright, then in command
of the Department of the Pacific, endorsed Beale's
concept and Lieut. Colonel Edwin B. Babbitt, the
Department' s quartermaster, pondered the suggestion
and then agreed with Wright's opinion. In reality,
Babbitt felt the camels would never be "used
profitably" and as early as November 1862, had
recommended that the experiment be cancelled and
the camels sold. However, Beale's request and the
Army decision to turn the camels over to another
federal agency were kicked upstairs to Washington,
D.C. The Quartermaster General in Washington endorsed
Wright's proposal and Wright was then about to take
action when two separate developments delayed his
In mid-July 1863, Captain William G. Morris, Assistant
Quartermaster at Wilmington, penned a letter to Colonel
Babbitt. Beale, Morris stated, only wanted part of
the herd and the camels from his experiments had
developed a personality problem. The camels did not
like being used in small groups away from the herd.
They became sulky when separated, refused to eat
or drink, and on reaching a stream of water a camel
would suddenly lie down in it, throwing the rider
and refusing to move. On rocky or gravelly roads
their feet became tender, and very sore. They became
cranky and refused to take commands and often upon
nearing a creek dumped their riders into the water.
In the meantime, Beale was accused of misusing government
funds and of irregularities in conducting surveys.
It would appear that Beale was only surveying property
in which he, or his friends, had a financial interest.
The main charge was that Beale had spent a great
deal of his federal budget on redecorating his own
office in San Francisco. The amount of $64,000 spent
on new carpets and furnishings was bandied about
in anti-Beale circles. Beale was suddenly in disfavor
and General Wright withdrew his support.
In early September 1863, the General in Washington,
D.C. wrote to Colonel Babbitt that the Department of
the Pacific should sell the camels. Babbitt requested
opinions from his quartermasters. Lieutenant Williamson
wrote that the camels were of no use. Again, he stated
the failures of their use at Camp Latham and at San
Pedro. And he reminded Babbbitt that the experiments
by "Lieutenant Beale and his partner Samuel Bishop" showed
that mules were superior. The roads when rough and
rocky crippled the animals. They were only good on
sandy ground. Williamson reminded Babbitt that the
recent trial run of a camel to Fort Mojave had foundered
the animal just 65 miles from Los Angeles, and the
mail carrier had to walk on to Fort Mojave. The express
mail could be carried by "horses or mules with
regularity and with much less expense to the government." Babbitt
was convinced; the camels would be sold at auction
as soon as possible.
A decision was made to sell the camels at auction at
Benicia Arsenal. Obviously too many people in the
Los Angeles area knew their weaknesses and there
was an import market for camels in the San Francisco
area where, after several false starts, a merchant
had been bringing in Siberian camels since 1860.
Captain Morris was informed to prepare to send the
camels northward at the earliest moment, but at the
cheapest method. On November 19, 1863, Morris replied
to Babbitt that the camels, apparently 35 or 37 in
number, were "in first rate condition for the
trip to Benicia Depot." However, he was delayed
in forwarding them due to the heavy winter storms
along the coast route. After two years of terrible
drought, it was raining. Morris also considered that
the current storms would produce grass along the
coastal road, allowing the animals to be fed cheaply
enroute. The camels were started north in late December
1863. For a brief period Morris thought of shipping
them by sea, but the cost of feeding them was unreasonable
and so Morris decided the final answer was to drive
The camels reached Santa Barbara on December 30, 1863
and the herders held them there while they celebrated
the coming of the New Year. Then they crossed the
mountains and moved on to the Salinas Valley and
progressed to Mission San Jose. They skirted the
south end of the bay and traveled up the east road
of the shoreline of the Contra Costa, arriving at
the landing site for Martinez on January 17, 18 64.
The next day the camels were ferried across the lower
Carquinez Straits to the government wharf at Benicia
Arsenal and were then moved to the corrals behind
the stone constructed buildings at the Benicia Quartermaster
Depot. They were placed in the open corrals; they
were not stabled in any of the fairly newly buildings
at the depot.1
Auction notices were published and on February 26,
1864, the gavel came down on each camel as a separate
government item. The high bidder for almost all the
camels was Samuel McLeneghan, who reputedly had worked
with the government camels earlier. However, nowhere
in government employment hiring records was McLeneghan's
name found. The 37 camels brought only $1,945, much
to the grief of the Benicia Depot's quartermaster
for be had expected more active bidding and a higher
sales profit. Apparently McLeneghan was the only
bidder, and the auctioneer had trouble getting any
response from the meager crowd that showed up. McLeneghan
got the whole herd for $52.56 each.
The next day, the Benicia quartermaster wrote a report
to his senior in the Department of the Pacific headquarters
in San Francisco. He expressed his regrets that the
total amount of money was so low, explaining that
few of the people who attended were interested in
putting forth money for camels. He had hoped for
more; the auctioneer had tried mightily to encourage
the group of interested or curious spectators, but
at least the camels were sold. The experiment in
California was over. As consolation he offered a
thought of relief: "They have been but a source
of expense for years past."
Author's Note: For years I have worked on the fascinating,
if disappointing, story of the camel experiment in
the West. I have plowed through clouds of myths and
good stories, and have been supported by the ongoing
humor of my colleagues in this business. My friends
have sent numerous new clues, or badly interpreted
or footnoted tales of the camels. But there is one
last tale. Humboldt Lagoons State Park has been one
of my history projects with the Department of Parks
and Recreation and the lagoons are located in Humboldt
County, far away from Fort Tejon, Drum Barracks and
Benicia Arsenal. Yet, the camels haunt me.
In mid-1865, two camels of government vintage were
sold by McLeneghan, or his associates, to the Portland,
Oregon, Zoo. They were placed aboard the ocean going
steamer, the Brother Jonathan, in the same compartment
where George Wright's big black riding horse was
also stabled, and the ship steamed out of San Francisco
for the Columbia River. Off Crescent City the Brother
Jonathan struck a submerged rock and went down, with
only a few of the human passengers surviving. All
the animals aboard were lost. Several weeks later,
on the long sandbar which blocks Stone Lagoon from
the ocean, the bodies of General Wright's horse and
a "Fort Tejon camel" washed ashore. The
local ranchers were forced to bury the stinking carcasses.
One just cannot get away from the Army camels.
The "Camel Barns" at Benicia Arsenal are
not camel barns. The elongated double tiered stone
buildings were "construction buildings" where
the Quartermaster Department manufactured equipment
or altered civilian items purchased on the open market
prior to delivery to the troops in the field. Later,
the buildings were used for storage as warehouses.
|There are good and bad
descriptions of the camel story. Beginning with those
who tried to be accurate:
|• A Bibliography of the Camel,
California Historical Society Quarterly, December 1930.
• A. A. Gray, "Camels in California",
California Historical Society Quarterly, March 1930.
• Lewis B. Lesley (ed.), Uncle Sam's Camels, the
Journal of May H. Stacey, 1929.
• Woodard, Arthur and P. Griffin, The Story of
El Teion, 1942. A very incomplete and undocumented work.
• Faulk, Odie B., The U.S. Camel Corps, 1976. A
readable but sloppy work. The section an the far west
is filled with errors.
• Howard, Helen
A., "Unique History of Fort Tejon", Journal
of the West. A mythical account; almost nothing is
• Fowler, Harlan D., Camels in California, 1950.
A cut and paste rip-off of history published by Stanford
• Robertson, Deane and Peggy, Camels in the West,
1979. Riddled with errors.
• California History Commission, Booklet, Drum Barracks
and the Camel Corps. Hilarious collection of errors,
mistakes, and folklore.