Jeff Davis' Dromedaries

Everyone knows that Jefferson Davis was President of the Confederate States. Few recall that previously he was Secretary of War in the Cabinet of President Franklin Pierce. Few Northerners realize he was an active visionary, a man unafraid to try to make his dreams come true. Still fewer people now alive remember the U. S. Army's curious Dromedary Episode, started by Jefferson Davis and last week still unended.

Secretary of War Davis was fascinated by what he heard of the great deserts in New Mexico, Arizona and southern California. In 1853, stagecoach lines or the Pony Express had not yet followed the covered wagons of the Gold Rush. There were Indians in the desert lands, Indians whom the War Department must subdue. Secretary of War Davis took thought and sent some Army commissioners to Egypt. Object: to buy dromedaries.

By 1857, 71 dromedaries had been landed alive in Texas at a cost of $30,000. Troops of them were maintained at El Paso, Fort Bowie, Ariz., Fort Tejon, Calif. Loaded with 1,000 to 1,500 lbs. of supplies, they did not cross the U. S. desert, hard-packed and lava-strewn, so well as they had crossed their native Sahara. Their wily stubborness made them unpopular with the soldiery; they stampeded horses and cattle. Nevertheless they were tested systematically in desert service for several years. In 1860 some of them helped build the famed Butterfield Stage road. In 1863 a dromedary express was started from San Pedro (port for Los Angeles) to Tucson, but it failed.

During the Civil War, the Confederates captured most of Jefferson Davis' dromedary herd. But Confederate Colonel Bethel Coopwood of Texas got 14 for himself, sent them over the line into Mexico. The rest were recaptured by the Federals, who in 1866 abandoned all camel experiments and offered the beasts for sale.

Last week Colonel Coopwood's descendants told the following story: Colonel Coopwood bought all the available dromedaries at $31 per head, took them to join his original 14 in Mexico. But when he drove the entire herd back into Texas, they were seized by the U. S. as stolen goods. Colonel Coopwood filed a claim against the Government, vainly pressed it during his lifetime. Last week's news was revival of the claim by Coopwood descendants. After the Government seized the Coopwood camels, they were turned loose in Arizona where they thrived, propagated. In 1870 a Nevada saltminer rounded up 25 to pack his wares in the Carson River district. In 1895 two carloads were shipped to Chicago for exhibition. A few were still visible in 1905, may still be extant.

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