Camels in San Pedro!!!

The military has had a long history in San Pedro. Camp Drum was established as a five company post originally named Camp San Pedro in January 1862, and located one mile from Wilmington, now a part of Los Angeles, on land donated by Phineas Banning. This post until 1 December 1863 called itself Camp Drum; it was thereafter designated as Drum Barracks. It was named by the War Department in honor of Lieutenant Colonel Richard Drum, assistant adjutant general of the Department of California.

Drum Barracks was a footnote in U.S. Military History when it participated in the grand experiment of utilizing camels in troop movements. In 1863, Major Clarence E. Bennett, post commander, complained, “They had been kept at this post a long time on forage when in San Bernardino and various places within 100 miles of here they could have been subsisted without the expenditure of one cent for forage.” He recommended the 36 camels at Drum be tested for service across Mojave Desert and be shipped to Fort Mojave because almost all grass at Drum was gone “and in little time the plains for miles and miles here will be perfectly bare.” He advised they be carefully trained and tended by “an energetic officer whose conduct was characterized by sobriety and integrity.- He blamed failure of previous camel use on fact government employees “regard service with camels extremely unpleasant.” He said, “In appearance camels are extremely ugly, in gait very rough, in herding inclined to wander, and with their long strides they make haste slowly, keeping their herders on the go; they offer no facilities for stealing.” The idea was not approved and camels were auctioned off at Benicia Depot the next year.

Camels at Drum Barracks

In late 1870, the camp was officially abandoned. Only 90 men remained on the post whose structures were deteriorating rapidly. By 1871, all had left with their equipment and stores transferred to Fort Yuma. On July 31, 1873 the camps buildings were sold at an auction. Banning bought five of them for a sum of $2,917 with his business partner, D.B. Wilson, buying one for $200. The land was returned to Banning and Wilson. Drum Barracks lives today as the restored junior officers quarters. There is the powder magazine but it has deteriorated and is too far from the museum to be counted. The mansions 14 rooms contain Civil War artifacts, weapons, paintings of Barracks commanders, a library dedicated to the study of the Civil War and southern California history and several rooms laid out as they might have appeared during the period

For more about the HISTORY OF SAN PEDRO visit my website at https://www.maureenmegowan.com