Jefferson Davis's Camels

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QUARTZSITE, Ariz. -- One of the most interesting military experiments of the American West involved 77 camels and a Syrian named Hi Jolly. His real name was Hadji Ali, and he's remembered today at a pyramid-shaped monument in the Quartzsitecemetery.
The story of Hi Jolly began in 1855 when Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was told of an innovative plan to import camels to help build and supply a Western wagon route from Texas to California. It was a dry, hot and otherwise hostile region, not unlike the camel's natural terrain in the Middle East.
Davis, convinced of the idea, proposed a Camel Military Corps to Congress. "For military purposes, and for reconnaissances, it is believed the dromedary would supply a want now seriously felt in our service," he explained.
Congress agreed and appropriated $30,000.
Major Henry Wayne was sent to the Middle East where he bought 33 of the animals. With much difficulty, they were loaded onto a Navy ship (with part of its deck modified to accommodate the large creatures) and transported to Texas. There Lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale took over. Forty-four more camels arrived later.
Hadji Ali and another foreigner were hired to teach the soldiers how to pack the animals. The Americans had a hard time pronouncing Ali's name so they nicknamed him Hi Jolly.
Beale left on a Western expedition in June, 1857, with Hi Jolly along as chief camel driver. Camels were loaded with 600 to 800 pounds each and traveled 25 to 30 miles a day. If the animals fared well, a series of Army posts could be set up later along the route to relay mail and supplies across the Southwest.
After reaching California the expedition returned to Texas, a success -- at least to Beale.
"The harder the test they (the camels) are put to, the more fully they seem to justify all that can be said of them," Beale wrote. "They pack water for days under a hot sun and never get a drop; they pack heavy burdens of corn and oats for months and never get a grain; and on the bitter greasewood and other worthless shrubs, not only subsist, but keep fat."
He concluded, "I look forward to the day when every mail route across the continent will be conducted and worked altogether with this economical and noble brute."
But perhaps he was too optimistic. What he didn't say was that the camels didn't take to the West's rocky soil. And prospectors' burros and mules -- and even Army mules -- were afraid of the odd-looking creatures and would sometimes panic at their sight.
Still, in 1858, then-Secretary of War John Floyd told Congress, "The entire adaptation of camels to military operations on the Plains may now be taken as demonstrated."
He urged Congress to authorize the purchase of 1,000 more camels.
Congress didn't act, however, as it was preoccupied with trouble brewing between the North and South.
With the first shots of the Civil War, the Camel Military Corps was as good as dead. Most of the animals were auctioned off, although a few escaped into the desert where most were shot by prospectors and hunters as pests.
Hi Jolly kept a few and started a freighting business between the Colorado River ports and mining camps to the east. The business failed, however, and Jolly released his last camel in the desert near Gila Bend. Years later, after marrying a Tucson woman and fathering two children, Hi Jolly moved to Quartzsite where he mined with a burro. He died in 1902 at age 73 and was buried in the Quartzsite Cemetery.
To his dying day, Hi Jolly believed that a few of the camels still roamed the desert. Some people think the ghosts of some still do

http://www.outwestnewspaper.com/camels.html
 
This sounds really interesting! I wonder what would have happened if the Camel Military Corps had seen action during the American Civil War?
 
This sounds really interesting! I wonder what would have happened if the Camel Military Corps had seen action during the American Civil War?
I think they may have been useful for smuggling routes thru the southwest via Texas for the Confederacy.
 
And the subject of this song:

Hi Jolly was a camel driver, long time ago
He followed Mr. Beale way out west
Didn't mind the burning sand in that God-forsaken land
But he didn't mind the pretty gals the best


Chorus: Hi Jolly, hey Jolly, twenty miles a day, by golly
Twenty more before the morning light
Hi Jolly, hey, I gotta get on my way
I told my gal I'd be home Sunday night


There's pretty girls in Albuquerque, 'least that's what I've heard
There's pretty gals in Tumcumcari too
Now honey, I ain't blind, but I don't pay them any mind
'Cause I'm savin' all my lovin' just for you


Old timers down in Arizona tell you that it's true
That you can see Hi Jolly's ghost a-ridin' still
When the desert moon is bright, he comes ridin' into sight
Drivin' four and twenty camels over the hill
 
Not off-hand. It's on a "New Christy Minstrels" album I have, but it's a collection and the liner notes don't cover individual songs. I'll poke around.


ETA From what I can see on the internet, it's credited to Randy Sparks, so at least the version I'm familiar with was written/arranged by him and done by the New Christy Minstrels in 1961. That doesn't preclude an older song that may have been adapted, though (thinking of the old standard "Tom Dula" and the Kingston Trio song "Tom Dooley")
 
The 43rd Mississippi Infantry had a pet camel named Douglas at Vicksburg. Is there any information whether Douglas was one of the western “Camel Corps camels?


GG Grandfather John M. Carlisle -- Chaplain 7th SC Inf.
GG Uncle James H. Carlisle – signer of SC Ordinance of Secession
G Grandfather Nathaniel L. McCormick—Private, Battery E 40th [3rd] N C Artillery
G Grandfather Thomas M. Bolton – Private, Co. G 19th Va. Inf.
G Uncle Dougald McCormick--Private Co. D 46th NC Inf.
G Uncle Duncan McCormick – Private, NC Home Guard
G Uncle Alexander Mc Cormick –1st Sgt, Co. B 6th Ms Inf.
G Uncle Murdoch McCormick—Private, Ms Home Guard
G Uncle James W. Bolton – Private, Co. B (Rives) Nelson Light Artillery (Va.), 1864 Co. G, 19th Va. Inf.
G Uncle Albert G. Bolton – Private, Co. F 27th Va. Inf.
G Uncle Alexander H. Bolton – Private, Co. D 7th Va. Inf.
G Uncle Lindsey C. Bolton – Private, Co. B. 1st Va. Reserves
G Uncle Thomas D. Boone – Captain,. Co. F 1st NC Inf.
G. Uncle James D. Boone -- Quartermaster sergeant, Co. F 1st NC Inf.
G Uncle John W. Boone -- Private, Co. D 59th (4th Cav.) NC, 1st NC Inf. Co. F
G Uncle Peter Lindsey Breeden—Captain, Co. E, 4th SC Cav.
G Uncle A.J. Breeden – Private, Co. E. 4th SC Cav.
Cousins –Daniel McKinnon, Luther McKinnon, John N. McKinnon, McKay McKinnon, Murdoch McKinnon -- all privates in Company E 40th (3rd) NC artillery [heavy]
 
What a bizarre mascot... though no more bizarre than some, I suppose. I have no idea, but given Davis' close ties to the Vicksburg area it would not surprise me if there were a connection somehow. (Was the 43rd raised in the Vicksburg area?)
 
From the Texas Baptist newspaper in Anderson, TX, June 9, 1859:

The Selma (Ala.) papers mention the arrival at that place of the camels, designed for planters in the vicinity. They are to be used for plowing and all kinds of heavy work on the plantation. These are a portion of the camels from Galveston.


From the Ohio Cultivator magazine, 1859:
Camels in Alabama.
In reply to a letter of inquiry, Mr. [Benjamin M] Woolsey, of Alabama, writes to the Savannah Republican a very flattering account of his experience with the camels recently introduced on his plantation, near Selma. Though very much reduced in flesh by the long voyage from the Canary Islands, they have worked to his entire satisfaction. He adds:

With more flesh and proper fitting harness, I hazard nothing in saying that a grown camel will draw with ease one of our two-horse prairie turning plows. I am now breaking out cotton middies with a winged sweep of twenty-four inches from wing to wing—the camel poor, and with two years growth before him. On Tuesday last I sent twelve bushels of corn to Selma to be ground, on the same camel.

The corn was placed upon a saddle, weighing 170 pounds, and the driver 190 pounds, making a burthen of 1,001 pounds—a very good mill wagon and team, I think. The price at which camels can be sold here, varies according to the age and size. The extremes are $150 and $450. The camel will eat almost anything that the goat does not refuse. They are fed in the Canary Islands on barley straw and barley chaff, and occasionally, but very seldom, barley meal is given them. I think they could soon be taught to eat cotton seed. While at work, I feed thum upon hay and wheat straw; when at rest, they are turned into dry pasture, and they are improving every day in flesh and spirits. There are now ten in an old field where a mule would starve, luxuriating upon weeds, briars and shrubbery.



An ad from the Mobile Alabama Daily Register, March 23, 1860:

Choice Breeding Stock for Sale.​
Pure Arabian Horses.
Spanish Merino Sheep.
Pure Cashmere Goats.
Maltese and Spanish Jacks.
Maltese Goats, Ewes and Bucks.
30 Superior Young Camels, well broke, suitable for any plantation work:
The above stock is all of direct importation, and no pains or expense spared in the selection.
The public is invited to call and examine this stock.
A. R. Meslier & Co., Mobile.


From the Arkansas True Democrat, Sept. 22, 1860:


The Camel vs. The Mule.—An Alabama friend who knows "all about" the Camels, recently introduced there and in Texas, says:
"Our planters of cotton seem afraid to risk a cent in any new enterprise. Our friend R., has not been able to get any one to take hold of the Camels but himself. He has four grown ones at work plowing.—Also, six very fine three years old—two females and four studs. He will emasculate the two youngest studs this month, and expects a calf from his oldest female in January next.
"He says that one camel can do the work of two mules and will take less to keep him than a mule or a cow.—There are twenty-eight camels for sale in Texas, belonging to Mrs. Watson. Price for grown Camels, $450 per head, young ones, three years old, $350, delivered at Galveston or Indianola, for cash or city paper, in New Orleans."
 
CSA Today,

That was a good question so I did a quick snoop! :playfull:

Douglas' owner was an officer named Hargrove, who had been a member of the Camel Corps before the war. He brought the camel for use to carry baggage and instruments for the regimental band - but the horses were terrified of him. In fact, near Iuka before the battle of Corinth, Douglas somehow got in with the horses (Douglas was well acquainted with horses but they were not acquainted with him!) and there was a wild stampede. This was just after dark, several men and horses were hurt and it was chaos. But Douglas' owner disappeared after the battle of Corinth - not sure if he was captured, wounded, went home or what. But wherever he went, he didn't take his camel with him! So the men adopted it.

Ft Tejon, California was the headquarters of the Camel Corps and the place where the experiment began. Ft Tejon was located in the Grapevine near where I-5 now passes and was constructed to protect the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley from unhappy Californios, Paiutes, Mohaves and other 'wild' Indians. The Mojave is a BIG desert! That's why Jeffereson Davis thought camels would be a good idea and imported a bunch from Africa. Davis was very innovative and progressive while secretary of war - he did a lot of modernizing. The camel corps may not have been his best idea but it was bright enough for a try!

Here's a little visual of Hi Jolly:


And here's the music to those lyrics!


This thread is great! :thumbsup:
 
CSA Today,

That was a good question so I did a quick snoop! :playfull:

Douglas' owner was an officer named Hargrove, who had been a member of the Camel Corps before the war. He brought the camel for use to carry baggage and instruments for the regimental band - but the horses were terrified of him. In fact, near Iuka before the battle of Corinth, Douglas somehow got in with the horses (Douglas was well acquainted with horses but they were not acquainted with him!) and there was a wild stampede. This was just after dark, several men and horses were hurt and it was chaos. But Douglas' owner disappeared after the battle of Corinth - not sure if he was captured, wounded, went home or what. But wherever he went, he didn't take his camel with him! So the men adopted it.

Ft Tejon, California was the headquarters of the Camel Corps and the place where the experiment began. Ft Tejon was located in the Grapevine near where I-5 now passes and was constructed to protect the Los Angeles Basin and San Joaquin Valley from unhappy Californios, Paiutes, Mohaves and other 'wild' Indians. The Mojave is a BIG desert! That's why Jeffereson Davis thought camels would be a good idea and imported a bunch from Africa. Davis was very innovative and progressive while secretary of war - he did a lot of modernizing. The camel corps may not have been his best idea but it was bright enough for a try!

Here's a little visual of Hi Jolly:


And here's the music to those lyrics!


This thread is great! :thumbsup:

Diane, Thanks for the information.
 
http://www.texfiles.com/erajune02/camel.htm
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/quc01
Expired Image Removed
3819890854_344ac6f653_m.jpg

One of my students got to see them at Ft. McKavett this spring. :smile:
 
There was an old movie made (mid-seventies?) about the camel corps called Hawmps. A comedy, of course. Have no idea if it is still available.
 
There's also a Disney one called "One Little Indian" starring James Garner as a trooper who deserts riding the only thing available - Rosie the camel!
 
Mark mentioned that Porter had been one who had ship that brought camels over when Davis had idea of his Camel Corp. I thought this was a very good thread on Jefferson Davis and his camels.

I always enjoy reading about camels and especially these, so I bumped it up for those who may have not read when first posted.
 
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