JEFFERSON DAVIS'S CAMEL EXPERIMENT 149 



he could not rise; Wayne then put two more bales on, making 1,256 

 pounds in all. The camel rose easily and walked off. Wayne wrote 

 to Davis that it quite convinced the skeptical and that it caused a 

 Texan poet to break into verse in the Indianola Bulletin. Later Miss 

 Mary A. Shirkey, of Victoria, Texas, knitted from camel's hair a pair 

 of socks for President Pierce. Major Wayne forwarded them through 

 the secretary of war.^^ 



During the latter part of May the camels were marched by easy 

 stages to San Antonio where they were kept nearly a month and then 

 removed to Val Verde (Green Valley) — a military post sixty miles 

 southwest of San Antonio. Here at Camp Verde, as it was called, the 

 permanent camel post was located. In September Wayne sent camels 

 and horses to San Antonio for supplies. The camels easily brought 

 600 pounds each; six of them carrying as much as twelve horses could 

 haul in wagons and in forty- two hours less time; the camels made the 

 sixty miles in two days and six hours, while the horses required over 

 four days. Later tests, made in November and December, 1856, showed 

 that camels could easily climb mountain trails where wagons could not 

 go, and that on muddy roads over which horses could not draw wagons, 

 the camels traveled without fatigue. Only on slippery slopes were they 

 troubled, and at the crossing of streams. Not being accustomed to 

 fording, they had to be driven in by throwing water in their faces. At 

 the end of 1856 Davis reported that in his opinion the experiment was 

 a success.^- 



Davis left the War Department in March, 1857, and was succeeded 

 by John B. Floyd. Wa}Tie was transferred to Washington and the 

 camels were left under the supervision of Captain J. N. Palmer, at 

 Campe Verde. In 1858 the " Societe imperiale Zoologique d'acclimata- 

 tion" of Paris, awarded to Major Wayne a first class gold medal for 

 the successful introduction and acclimation of the camel in the United 

 States. Secretary Floyd was convinced of the usefulness of camels on 

 the western plains, and in his second report, December, 1858, he recom- 

 mended that 1,000 be purchased. This recommendation was repeated 

 in 1859 and in 1860, but Congress paid no attention to the matter.^^ 



After 1857 some of the camels were sent to the army posts at El 

 Paso and Bowie. They were disliked by the army hostlers; the Ara- 

 bian and Turkish caretakers were regarded with contempt, and it was 

 difficult to get the American hostlers and wagon masters to help in the 

 experiments. The horses objected to the smell of the camels when 

 stabled or picketed near them and the hostlers sometimes turned the 

 camels loose to get rid of them. However, during the four years before 



" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 62, 34 Cong., 3 Sess., p. 148-63. Harper's Magazine, 

 October, 1857. 



" Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 5, 34 Cong., 3 Sess., p. 22. 

 " Sen. Ex. Doc, No. 2, 36 Cong., 1 Sess. 



