Douglas "Sopwith"

I love cemeteries.  I find them peaceful, and I love the beauty with which people honor their dead.

I don't, however, ordinarily spend a lot of time in Confederate cemeteries.

This one was worth it.

OK, so before the Civil War, Jefferson Davis advocated the use of camels as beasts of burden for use in the arid area of the US West.  It made sense, as horses were dying for lack of water (presaging the water supply issues of today.  But I digress....).  He obtained funding for his project, and bought camels in 1855 (more complete story here).

Camels don't get on well with other animals, and the camel project was a failure.  The last of the camels, Old Douglas, ended up seeing action in Vicksburg, having gained mascot status for Company A of the Forty Third Mississippi Infantry - who subsequently became known as the Camel Regiment.

The Vicksburg Siege lasted 90 days, and during that time, one of the casualties was Old Douglas, who fell to a Union sniper bullet.  There is some dissension about what happened next, whether Douglas was slaughtered and eaten by hungry Confederate soldiers, or whether he ended up on a Union plate.  But his cemetery marker (which is empty, in true cenotaph style) marks an empty grave, in either case.

I ran across the reference to the marker on the site http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/41405, and found it exactly where the site sent me.  And even Kathe got excited, taking pictures to send to our family in Dubai.

Location of Old Douglas' gravestone.

Kathe had not even been to this side of Clay Street in Vicksburg.
The cemetery is quite lovely.

I believe I will save an ebay search for "Old Douglas" and see if any of the bones ever come up for sale.  Even a fake one would be fun to have....