Today in 1855 US lawmakers approved $30,000 in funding for a surprising reason: “the purchase of camels and the importation of dromedaries, to be employed for military purposes.”
The idea for the so-called “Camel Corps” experiment came in the days of westward expansion.
The US was trying to annex, buy or take all the land between the states in eastern North America and what is now California, Oregon and Washington state.
Much of the work of holding that land fell to the American military.
Some of its leaders who had spent time in the west and southwest (including then-Secretary of War and future Civil War villain Jefferson Davis) saw dry land and lots of mountains and figured this is all desert land, pretty much uninhabitable.
So they asked, how is it that people who live in hot, dry lands get themselves and their supplies from place to place?
And they thought, what about camels?
Once Congress had approved money for a pilot program, Major H.C. Wayne led a mission to Europe and North Africa to obtain some camels and to get some pro tips on how to handle them.
A year later, he and 34 camels were in the US, testing out how the beasts could handle the terrain and climate.
The tests went well! The animals handled every job they were given, and even some of the military’s biggest camel critics said that they were strong, versatile, durable and good-tempered.
But other critics could not be swayed from their “why not just stick with mules?” stance, while military horses could not stand the camels’ smells or appearances.
There were other challenges: it took time and money to keep importing the camels from outside the country.
And, of course, what came after westward expansion was the Civil War, when the country was dealing with issues more pressing than which pack animal worked best in the southwest.
A few of the camels would go on to carry bags for the Confederate military.
The rest were either sold at auction or set free; a few of the camela made their escapes into the wild West.
Today in 1875, the first indoor game of hockey took place in Montreal.
The game at the Victoria Skating Rink was a landmark on the road to modern ice hockey, but it also annoyed the other people trying to skate at the rink that day.
So the first-ever indoor hockey game… ended with a brawl.
I’m Brady, and it wouldn’t be the last one, would it?
The U.S. Army’s “Camel Corps” Experiment (Army Historical Foundation)
First indoor game ended in melee (ESPN)
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Image by Gwinn Heap via Wikicommons
