Los Angeles
After the expedition reached Fort Yuma, they headed north, crossing the Colorado River, trekking through the Mojave Desert, crossing the Sierras, and heading toward Los Angeles, their final destination. News of their arrival preceded them. A California newspaper headline announced, “The Camels Are Coming!” Harper’s Magazine also ran an illustrated story about the camels’ journey.
The party split up at Cajon Pass on the western slope of the Sierras. Greek George went with the main caravan traveling north to Fort Tejon, located in a mountain pass at the western end of the Mojave Desert. The fort played a strategic role in maintaining order in the area from its location in the Grapevine Pass.
Beale and Hi Jolly took the rest of the camels to Los Angeles. At the outskirts of town, Hi Jolly changed into an Arab tunic and headdress and hung bells on the lead camel. They entered Los Angeles in formation led by a soldier on horseback flying the American flag. Next came the 44 soldiers on horseback, and then, finally, the camels loped into town, led by Hi Jolly, dressed as a sheik atop the tallest camel, its bells jangling and clanging.
Dogs barked at the sight and the cacophony; horses panicked and bolted. The commotion drew even the most jaded residents of the village of 3,500 who lined the dusty streets, taking in the spectacle of camels sauntering into town. For the next two days, the pueblo welcomed Beale and his party with a fiesta. Afterward, the caravan assembled at the Plaza and then headed north on the Camino Real to join the others at Fort Tejon. Locals would talk about the day the camels came in from the desert for years to come.
At Fort Tejon, the camels were put to work transporting mail and supplies around the region and as far away as New Mexico. In January 1859, Beale briefly returned home to Washington, D.C., leaving the camels in the care of his business partner, Samuel A. Bishop. In Beale’s absence, Bishop used the camels to haul freight to his ranch in the lower San Joaquin Valley.
Late in the summer of 1859, the Quartermaster Department requested the return of the camels to begin field tests. On their cross-country trek from Texas, they had not been evaluated for speed and endurance, so those tests needed to start immediately. During the expedition, General Beale had submitted glowing reports to Washington on the camels’ performance. In one crucial incident, when the party was lost in the desert, the camels led them to a river, saving them from dehydration. There were three casualties, including Seid, General Beale’s favorite camel, who stood eight feet tall at the hump. When Seid died along the route, Beale had his skeleton preserved and shipped to the Smithsonian Institution, where his bones remain in the museum’s collection today.
Winfield Scott Hancock
Bishop returned the Army’s camels to Fort Tejon on November 17. The officer in charge of the field tests was Captain Winfield Scott Hancock, assistant quartermaster in Los Angeles. Hancock would later serve with distinction in the Civil War and be promoted to major general. General George B. McClellan described Hancock’s battlefield performance as “superb,” a nickname that stuck. However, post-war political success eluded Hancock, and he would lose the presidency as the Whig Party nominee three times.
In September 1860, Captain Hancock initiated the first official test. The Pony Express, inaugurated five months earlier, delivered mail over a 1,700-mile route from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento in about 10 days. It was short-lived, lasting just 19 months, in part because it required young riders to push their horses to the limit of their endurance, galloping from one express stop to another.
Hancock ordered Hi Jolly to replicate the Pony Express on a 300-mile route from Los Angeles to Fort Mojave, Arizona. Hi Jolly followed orders and drove the camels at top speed for the entire route. As a result, camels died under him twice, requiring him to cross the desert on foot, carrying the mailbags on his back. The Army learned from the test what should have been obvious: camels were beasts of burden, not built for speed. Although the test wasn’t a complete disaster, the Army discovered that camels could haul mail more cheaply, though no faster, than mules.
Other tests put the camels through their paces, traveling back and forth between the pueblo and Fort Tejon, testing their endurance under a variety of real-world conditions. Legend has it that during an Indian attack, Greek George’s thick, wiry beard stopped an arrow from piercing his throat. On another test, George drove his camel so hard that it died under him. While Hi Jolly lost two camels following orders, the Army blamed George’s negligence for the failure.
Fired
At the end of September 1860, the quartermaster staff replaced Hi Jolly and Greek George with soldiers. Hi Jolly received a full month’s pay of $30, but Greek George was fired “for causes,” including stupidity, illiteracy, and drunkenness. He forfeited his final paycheck to cover the cost of the camel that died.
Despite these challenges, the tests were largely considered a success. In 1860, Secretary of War John B. Floyd, under the outgoing President James Buchanan’s administration, recommended acquiring 1,000 additional camels and officially establishing a U.S. Army Camel Corps. However, that was not to be.