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Forrest Bryant Johnson

Autore di The Last Camel Charge

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Forrest Bryant Johnson served nine years with the US Army, rising to the rank of Captain. Johnson is an experienced explorer and a professional at conducting scenic desert tours. He reports with authority and full knowledge on all the animals who must survive in the harsh environment of the Mojave mostra altro Desert. He is the author of Hour of Redemption, Phantom Warrior, and The Last Camel Charge. He resides in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife and pets. mostra meno

Comprende il nome: F. B Johnson

Opere di Forrest Bryant Johnson

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Should be the Only Camel Charge]. Or perhaps the Only American Camel Charge, as presumably camels have been charging in other parts of the world for some time. (Taxonomically, of course, llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos are camels, and American – or at least Western Hemisphere. But there’s no record of them charging anything. Spitting, yes.).


Author Forrest Johnson wanders all over the Southwest, but it’s engaging wandering. Topics covered include the various Western explorers (setting the stage, so to speak); Mexican-American War (because the US acquired a lot of camel country); the First Afghan War (because it resulted in the expulsion of the Hereditary Prince of Ghor from that country; he happened to be an American, Josiah Harlan, who had set himself up In The Man Who Would Be King style and returned to the States as a self-proclaimed expert on camels); the California Gold Rush (because now there was actually a reason to want to pass through camel country); the Mormons (because they were in the way and were not terribly enthused about having a lot of Gentiles trek through Deseret); the Mountain Meadows Massacre (because it demonstrated that lack of Mormon enthusiasm could be problematical); the manners and customs of the Mojave Indians (because they were also in the way and also not terribly enthusiastic about people trekking through their territory); William Walker’s filibustering expedition to Nicaragua (because one of Walker’s lieutenants was a camel enthusiast); firearms of the Old West (because I suspect Forrest Johnson is a firearms fan and wanted a chance to show off); the American Civil War (because it resulted in the abandonment of a lot of Western military posts); and, of course, camels.


Many people of the time probably took a look at Southwest terrain and commented to themselves or to whoever happened to be standing around “Whoa. This would be a great place for camels”, but it took a while and several petitions to the War Department and Congress; eventually, in 1855, Congress appropriated $30000 to buy camels. Even though this was to be an Army project it wasn’t that unreasonable to appoint a Navy officer to go and get camels; there was an ocean in the way, after all. Lieutenant David Dixon Porter, later to be a Civil War hero, read everything he could get on camels, developed a special harness to anchor camels on board in rough weather, sailed the ship Supply to Alexandria and Smyrna, loaded up on camels, and sailed them back to Indianola, Texas. (It isn’t clear exactly how many camels were involved. Johnson says Porter bought 31 camels and ended up with 34 at Indianola – some of the camels had shipboard romances – but also says there was a net gain of one; apparently some of the camels were resold in the Levant as unsuitable). The Supply turned around and got another batch of 41 camels. There were eight “Arab” camel handlers between the two trips; “Arab” is what there are in the records but the surviving names are all Greek except for the most famous, Hadji Ali; and his birth name was Filippou Teodora.


Once on American soil, Major Henry Wayne marched the refugees from the Levant overland to a camp near San Antonio; although most horses got along with camels, some spooked and the camel train had a rider go ahead shouting “The camels are coming!”. Wayne proposed establishing a breeding herd and rotating cavalry troopers through to become familiar with camels. The War Department demurred; its goal was to “determine the suitability of camels for military purposes”, but it went about this in a rather odd way. A naval lieutenant, Edward Beale (see above) was assigned to build a military road from Albuquerque to Fort Tejon, California; he would select a work crew of civilian contractors; and on the way he would test camels. Exactly why the War Department picked a naval officer and civilians to test Army camels is one of those mysteries of the military-industrial complex. At any rate, Beale obeyed orders and headed west, doing some surveying and road building on the way. The camels proved to be quite adaptable; eating prickly pear, greasewood, sagebrush, agave, and other less-than-appetizing desert foliage with relish (in fact, at one point they annihilated a prickly pear fence a rancher had built around his house). The expedition paused at El Morro, where members inscribed their names on the rock. Eventually they reached the Colorado River, where while waiting to cross the camels annoyed the Mojave by eating anything they could reach that was even remotely digestible, including all the mesquite trees the Mojave grew for their seed pods. The camels proved adaptable again; while ten mules and two horses died trying to swim the Colorado, all the camels made it across and eventually reached Fort Tejon.


Johnson generally adopts the “misunderstood noble savage” attitude toward Native Americans; he claims the Mojave were generally peaceful but were sometimes overly importunate in their desire to acquire trade goods. (The language barrier was probably a problem; only one Mojave spoke any English, and his vocabulary was limited to “God Damn Your Eyes” and “Howdy Do”). At any rate, the Mojave almost annihilated an emigrant train that followed Beale’s road; that prompted a military expedition to subdue them, and the camels at Fort Tejon were ordered to meet the military with supplies. Once again the camels were under the command of a civilian, this time local rancher Sam Bishop. Bishop requested a military escort but was turned down, leaving him with 44 civilians, 20 camels, and an assortment of mules and wagons against the Mojave. And finally, we get to the camel charge.


The Mojave gave Bishop various signs they didn’t want him in their territory – lines in the sand, drawings of men pierced with arrows, and now and then an actual arrow. Bishop pressed on; but eventually he realized the Mojave were not going to get out of the way without a fight. He asked for volunteers, selected 20, cached supplies, sent the wagons, mules and extra people back, mounted everybody on a camel, and had Hi Jolly lead a charge. The Mojave had seen camels before, but only as slow-moving pack animals; they weren’t quite prepared for the sight of 20 of them moving at speed – which apparently is around 40 mph for a camel. Think the charge on Aqaba in Lawrence of Arabia, except the Mojave didn’t have any Maxim guns. At any rate, the Mojave departed at speed themselves, Bishop hooked up with the military and delivered his supplies, and all were happy except the Mojave (and maybe even them, since the camel charge didn’t actually kill anybody and it must have been exciting to watch, even on the receiving end).


The rest of US camel history is anticlimactic. The Army finally got around to using the camels itself, rather than having civilians and the Navy do it, and they were used on an expedition to the Big Bend country of West Texas and performed admirably. Since everybody who had contact with camels reported back to the War Department full of praise for their usefulness, the Army naturally abandoned the program and sold the camels at auction or just abandoned them (well, to be fair, the Civil War was starting, the desert military posts were being abandoned, and there was no longer any need for camels). One camel, however, became something of a pet to a Confederate military unit and was killed at the siege of Vicksburg.


As for Hi Jolly, he settled in southern Arizona and married a local woman. He retained a fondness for camels, however, and when, in 1902, some local cowboys told him they had seen one in the desert the elderly hadji set off in search of it. His remains were found later; his arms were wrapped around the neck of a deceased camel. (This is what Johnson says; I’m a little suspicious as I can find no independent confirmation other than that Hi Jolly died in Quartzite, Arizona Territory, in 1902).


Pleasantly written. Includes a reference list of mostly secondary sources, photographs of the participants, and well-done maps including the site of Bishop’s camel charge (now in extreme southern Nevada, near the triple border with Arizona and California).
… (altro)
½
 
Segnalato
setnahkt | Dec 26, 2017 |

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6
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ISBN
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