BACK STORY - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 19

(see Bulliet, 1990). 2 Several officials serving in the dry trackless regions therefore
persuaded Jefferson Davis, then the U.S. Secretary of War, that what the army
needed was camels (Figure 2.1), and in 1855 Congress appropriated $30,000 to test
the idea (Marsh, 1856: 210).
Acquiring camels was more expensive than acquiring sparrows, partly because
they are much larger and partly because such transactions required intermediate
negotiations with people, including camel owners, foreign government, and
customs officials. And the animals themselves demanded significantly more
attention, which Americans familiar only with such northern ungulates as horses
and cattle were ill equipped to provide. In consequence, a Syrian handler named
Hadji Ali (soon anglicized to 'Hi Jolly') was hired to accompany the first shipment
of camels; he outlasted his charges and was ultimately buried in Quartzsite, Arizona,
where his tomb, which also commemorates the original Camel Corps, now
constitutes the town's primary tourist attraction. 3 A total of 75 camels survived their
FIGURE 2.1 Camels.
Source: Goodrich (1861: 576).