14 May 2026

In 1856, the U.S. Army imported 75 camels from the Middle East to serve as military transport in the American Southwest. The experiment worked (the camels outperformed mules in desert terrain) but collapsed when the Civil War broke out and its champion, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, defected to lead the Confederacy. Some camels were released into the wild and were spotted in Texas as late as the 1890s.