The Saber and Scroll Journal Volume 5, Issue 4, Fall 2016 | Page 30

Davis left the office of Secretary of War prematurely in 1858. He was its primary
organizer, having worked on it as a senator and then as Secretary of War. His
replacement, John B. Floyd, gave the research some backing, but never with the
eagerness that Davis displayed. The Army ordered the second most respected
enthusiast, Major Wayne, to other obligations a few months after the experiment
got under way, and there was never afterwards a passionate field director watching
over the animals at Camp Verde. 23
Besides the lack of support from Washington, there was a breakdown in
the care of the animals. Almost from the start, there was trouble in training and
nourishing the creatures. In a span of a few weeks, several died of mysterious
illnesses, and others suffered and became unfit for labor. The military officers
found it difficult to get any hostler to attend to the camels, to which most of the
cavalrymen took a vehement abhorrence. Horses became fidgety and unruly when
stabled or rounded up with the outlandish animals. There were frequent rumors
that when a camel or two had broken away during the night and wandered off,
soldiers did not always put forth eagerness to find the creatures and bring them
back. 24
A shift in power undermined the project; however, the outbreak of the
Civil War delivered the deathblow to the Camel Corps. After the spring of 1861,
the camels were in the control of Confederate soldiers, horse and mule men from
the South, who did not appreciate camels and did not suitably care for them. The
soldiers left the camels to fend for themselves and permitted them to run wild.
After the war broke out, the North shunned everything that Jefferson Davis had
once supported. 25 On 9 September 1863, the last of the herd in California, thirty-
five in number, were ordered to be sold at public auction, and were procured by
Samuel McLaughlin, in whose care they had been for some time. It is likely that
most of the animals found their way into farm parks and game reserves. In March
1866, following the close of the Civil War, the Army Quartermaster-General
ordered that the camels remaining at Camp Verde, Texas be sold at auction. 26
The Confederacy wanted little to do with the camels. In the upheaval of
the Civil War, every fort in the South fell into neglect and the animals meandered
away at will. They journeyed in twosomes, and occasionally in clusters of four and
six across the deserts and into the mountains. 27 Finally, the horse and mule-
dominated army did not favor the camel. The old stalwart army mule had ample
friends but the camel had few. A mule would react to a lot of profanity, which did
not work as well with a camel. They seemed never to give into any blasphemy in
the company of a cussing driver. 28
The animals were finding themselves out of a government job and needed
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