On April 29, 1856, a shipload of 33 camels arrived at the Texas port of Indianola, part of a U.S. Army plan to deploy the dromedaries in arid West Texas to use in chasing Indians and transporting supplies. A camel caravan soon set for frontier posts and stopped for a time in Victoria, where the animals were clipped so a pair of camel-hair socks could be made for President Franklin Pierce. More camels were imported, but the ultimately the experiment failed because handlers found the animals smelly, obnoxious and hard to control. Escaped camels roamed the desert for years and got into the folklore of the region. Who advocated for the camel project? Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, who later became president of the Confederacy. Critics insisted the project was a subterfuge by Davis to encourage Southerners to move West and expand slavery to the West.