The US Army once ran camels in the American Southwest. Thirty-three of them landed in Texas in 1856, along with a crew of Middle Eastern & Greek handlers hired to manage them, and the experiment worked — right up until the Civil War killed the funding. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had convinced Congress that camels would outperform mules in the desert. The USS Supply delivered the animals and the handlers, among them Hadji Ali, whom the soldiers called Hi Jolly. The camels carried more, ate less, and went days without water. The problem was that every horse and mule in the Army panicked at the sight of them, and the teamsters hated them. They were auctioned off in 1864. Hi Jolly bought a few, failed at a freight business, and released them into the desert near Gila Bend. Loose camels fed Southwest ghost stories for forty years. He's buried under a stone pyramid in Quartzsite, Arizona.