The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958 Page: 36
591 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
where they might be used occasionally for transportation and
scouting. Camp Verde seemed to him to be the locality that pre-
sented excellent opportunities for all requirements of the ex-
periment, and particularly for comparison with the other means
of transportation through an arid and broken country with a
range of service embracing journeys of sixty to six hundred miles.
According to his ideas, twenty-five enlisted men, including three
noncommissioned officers, would be needed to care for the ani-
mals. Rigid military responsibility, which could not be obtained
from civilian employees, was necessary for the best results. And
finally, the officer in charge of the experiment should be allowed
to a considerable extent to use his own judgment and discretion.'8
Major Wayne's last recorded letter to Secretary Davis was dated
on February 21, 1857, and written in Washington, where he had
been called. Davis, who would soon relinquish the position of
secretary of war, had summoned Wayne to Washington to talk
with him. In the letter Wayne reported that only five camels had
been lost at Camp Verde, two by violent injuries, one by epilepsy,
and two (the Bactrians) by what he believed to have been an
acclimatory disease of Texas, known as "the Spanish fever." The
two Bactrians were the only animals that showed any serious
effects of the climate in Texas, which he attributed to the unusual
and excessive heat of the past summer, to confinement on ship-
board, and to an error in blanketing them too heavily on the
voyage. The other animals were in healthy condition. He had
been told by experienced Texans that his animals had been more
fortunate than was usual with the same number of horses and
mules brought from other states.19
Major Wayne, needed in the Office of the Quartermaster Gen-
eral in Washington, was relieved from further duty with the camel
experiment in February, 1857. He moved to Washington where
he served until, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he resigned
from the United States Army and joined the Confederate States
Army to serve with troops from his home state of Georgia. After
Wayne's departure from Camp Verde, Captain I. N. Palmer was
put in charge of the experiment and served with it until the
1sWayne to Davis, February 12, 1857, ibid., 196.
19Wayne to Davis, February 21, 1857, ibid., 197.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 61, July 1957 - April, 1958, periodical, 1958; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101164/m1/56/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.