US camel corps

[duhamel]

Here we are, I began my first figurine of the camel US body from a foundry figurine and from a black tree dromedary design.
Soon the continuation(suite)...

[bulldogger2000]

VERY cool!

[Plynkes]

Nice idea. I look forward to seeing more. I had no idea about this experiment until I googled it after seeing this post. I've got some pack camels and camel-transported mountain guns on the waiting list at the moment myself. Camels are great (not real ones though, I think they are the most horrid, ill-mannered of animals).

[Cory]

And with the camel corps comes "The Red Ghost".

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1961/3/1961_3_35.shtml

The camel experiment was amazing and the camels got around quite a bit after their military career - as far north as BC and Idaho.

[Barry S]

I'm also looking forward to seeing more

I have often thought of making a unit for my VSF-ACW armies after being inspired by these conversions and a Command War Comic titled 'Camel Cavalry' which is set during the ACW: http://www.geocities.com/carsong2001/sonorancamel.html

[Gallowglass]

You always try to track down the film "Hawmps!":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawmps!

[Wirelizard]

I think the camels up here in BC were from a seperate experiment in transportation, not wanderers from the southwestern US attempts.

Yes, we did have (a few, not many) camels wandering central BC for a few years at the tail end of the 19th Century!

That tale of the Red Ghost is creepy as heck, and if it had been fiction I'd have written it off as too macabre to be taken seriously! Giant red camel with a corpse strapped to it terrorizes the countryside!

[Plynkes]

According to Wikipedia (!) the BC camels were some of the same lot. They didn't wander all the way up there though, but some of the US Army ones were purchased when it was decided to knock the experiment on the head, and transported to Canada by steamer. They were then used to haul freight during one of the gold rushes.


It would appear they were Bactrian, rather than Arabian camels.