Greetings to my Carolina Compatriots on this list! I'm up to my Confederate neck in research on several Southern fronts and need some "Tar Heel" help. I am posting this query on the NC Board since many veterans from MS settled in NC after the war; some may have left accounts regarding a camel they might have seen or heard of during the war. Additionally, when the camel-owning 43rd MS Inf. served in the Carolinas Campaign, many NC Southrons may have heard about the camel directly from these Mississippians.

I am looking for further references about the 43rd MS Infantry's camel! The 43rd MS Infantry had a camel named "Old Douglas" who was with them at Iuka, Corinth, and Vicksburg, where he was killed by a sniper and eaten (!) by a portion of the starving garrison. I am looking for additional quotes about this animal as part of my research on the 43rd MS, known early in the war as "the Camel Regiment"!

I have the two Confederate Veteran accounts, the MO account of Bevier, and the TX account of Barron, Jim Miles' account from "A River Unvexed," and T.T. Smith's 43rd MS diary account of a man killed when the camel stampeded the regiment's horses. I am looking for any other accounts -- manuscript, regimental, magazine, etc. Still looking for data from all states, including MS, MO, and TX. All data welcome. I know that Kitchens referenced the camel in Chapter 5, page 33, of "Rosecrans Meets Price," but I haven't been able to find that book yet. I also know that Albert Casteel wrote about the camel in an article for Civil War Times Illustrated entitled "The Diary of Gen. Henry Little, C.S.A.," which I also don't have.

I am sure that there must be a dozen or more other accounts out there! It's possible that some NC Southron heard of or saw the camel, which was with the Army of Vicksburg from Fall '62 until near the end at Vicksburg. And North Carolina was at Vicksburg! Maybe some NC vets saw "Old Douglas"! Maybe they had a camel steak!

If you know of any sources, please contact me! Happy to share what I already have with any interested person. Many thanks, Compatriots!