In 1836, Army Major George H. Crosman encouraged the War Department to use camels for transportation. Around 1848, Major Henry C. Wayne conducted a more detailed study and recommended importation of camels to the War Department; his opinions agreed with those of then Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. When Davis was appointed as Secretary of War in 1853, he convinced the President and Congress to take the idea seriously, especially since US forces were required to operate in arid and desert regions. In March 1855, the US Congress appropriated $30,000 for the project.
Major Wayne departed New York City on the USS Supply on June 4, 1855 to procure camels. The returned to Texas in May 1856 with 34 camels. In 1857, 41 more camels were acquired.
In 1857, Congress authorized a contract to survey a wagon road from Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, to the Colorado River on what is now the Arizona/California border. Former Navy lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale did the survey and took 25 camels with him and greatly appreciated their work. Early in the Civil War, an attempt was made to use the camels between the New Mexico Territory and California, but the attempt was unsuccessful after the commanders of both posts objected. Later in the war, the Army had no further interest in the animals and they were sold at auction in 1864. Among the reasons the camel experiment failed was its support by Jefferson Davis, who left the United States to become President of the Confederate States of America.
