They Called Him BULLDOG

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

The Cavalry FAN DANCER

With leave being weeks away, the guys were getting anxious for a little entertainment. Henry said he'd seen a fan dancer in the big city and thought he could recreate it. The guys weren't convinced, but here's Henry out looking for his costume.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

NATTY NED the Cavalry Man

Click on image to see it larger.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

FLEAMARKET Cavalry

Just your average Cavalry fleamarket. Old trucks, boxes of Jello, and items you won't find anyplace else. Open only on Saturday. Best hour 14:50.

Click on image to see it larger.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

The PACKAGE from Home

A pack of gum? A love letter folded up like origami? What has these two fellows so fascinated and the third working as the lookout? My mind runs in all sorts of directions.

Click on image to see it larger.
This photo is from the Louise Bigelow Schnabel album, same as the last post with the goat.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

Off to WAR

This is the weekend we in the U.S. honor those who have fallen victim to the follies of old men far from the front. I'm not one to say that war is never required, but it should be the very last option, never the first.

This photo shows a line of men about to be sent off to fight in World War I. On either side of them is full on flag waving patriotism. It's easy to wave the flag when you're not the one carrying it into battle.

Click on images to see them larger.

How many of these young men returned unscathed? How many suffered with nightmares for the rest of their lives and the label "shell shocked"? They were labeled as being weak, unmanly for not just getting on with their lives. The war was over, let it go. It took a long time for humanity as a whole to understand the mental damage done by war and be willing to openly talk about it and give it a name: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

So as we celebrate those who have passed don't forget to look around for the walking wounded amongst us. Those old men, still far from the front, continue to make life decisions for those they'll never meet.

I will be spending part of this Memorial Day with a group of World War II veterans. So few of these veterans are left and I know of many who still refuse, or cannot, talk of what they saw and did, let alone what happened to them. Their stories are dying with them and they will soon be forgotten.

Memorial Day is not just about BBQ's and good sales.

This post is my completely off topic contribution to Sepia Saturday.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 8 available at Amazon.

Lost and ALONE, but NOT FORGOTTEN

This is a repost from 2009. It is my submission for Sepia Saturday's remembrance of World War I. I reference two online folks who were able to fill in some of the lost information about the photo. One of them, Eloh, has been missing in action for many years from her blog. At some point someone has gone in and deleted all the very funny stories she told.

I again thank both of them for providing the information they did.

And I do recall that a writer from Wisconsin or Michigan—I can't remember—contacted me about using the photo in a story she was writing for a local paper. I was told I'd be sent a link to the article. Of course I never was. It's happened many times that I've given folks permission to use something with the stipulation they eventually either send me a copy of the book or a link to the piece. Too often they simply don't follow through with their side of the deal.
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I have no information about this photograph. I don't know if this World War I graveyard is stateside or in Europe. It's sad, mysterious, and just plain interesting. Nothing is written on the back. Perhaps someday someone will stumble across it in Flickr who knows something about it.

Click on image to see it larger.

List of names that I was able to clearly read:

1. Charles A. Vogt / Pvt 50Co.T.C. 17 Grand Div / Died 1919
2. Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs  / Died Mar. 6. 1919
3. John C Zitzmann / Col or Sgt Heqrs Co 312 ??? / Died Oct. 13. 1918
4. Macgo Alston / Pvt CoD 304 Labor ??? / Died Jan. 6. 1919
5. Robert Illig / Pvt Co A 38 Engrs / Died 
6. Edward P Bowe?? / Wagoner
7. Clarence V. Fanning / Pvt Co D 312 Engrs / Died Jan. 7. 1919
8. Michael J Connolly / Pvt Hdqs Co ??? / Died ??? 
9. Walter C Skole / Mechanic CoG 344 Inf / Died ???
10. Albert C. Welch / Sgt. CoF 348 Inf / Died Feb. 5. 1919
11. Ernest Bisbee / Wagoner Sply Co 348 Inf / Died Nov. 4. 1918
12. Eugene B. Ball / Corpl 15 Engrs / Died Mar. 13. 1919 
13. David L Dosh??? / Cook CoM ??? / Died Feb. 9. 1919

To see the people in the photo even larger click here.

Update: The net is an amazing place. This photo can now be put into context with the world. Eloh, from the hysterically funny blog http://elohssanatahw.blogspot.com/, and Lori, a genealogist from http://www.familytreesmaycontainnuts.com, together filled in the pieces. I present to you their findings.

From Eloh:

I looked at the larger photo, wow, there is some "silent film" going on isn't there. A whole movie in the expressions and body language.

The woman, possibly Graves Registration? She's wearing what seems to be a campaign ribbon on her lapel. It could be a flower stem or a pencil in her right hand and it looks like papers between her purse and body.  I'm stumped with the pockets both full of hankies. They could be scented, but the exhumed remains really wouldn't be that stinky.  Maybe she just has a heart, maybe fashion?

The full bird colonel is obviously upset with her. He is used to getting things his way.  On his collar is the Engineer insignia and the Combat Infantrymans. Color is a problem with the rank of the other two, but one thing about the Army, some things stay the same.  I'll still be guessing that the oak leaf is gold and that Major is the Colonels' Aid. (Personal secretary).  Color problems again, and again it would normally be a silver bar of a First Lieutenant, could be a Captain at that angle of the photo, but he is young and not paying attention to his surroundings, he is only interested in what that Bird Colonel wants. He is also wearing Engineer Insignia. I can't make out the patch, left shoulder it would tell us what "Army" he was assigned to.
(7th Army has been in Europe since  WWII)

I noticed in your list of names a Junior and thought it the most likely to connect up to something useful.  I was lucky as he did have a child.

This is a relocation of soldiers killed in France.

Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs  / Died Mar. 6. 1919

Born:  10 Jul 1888  Place:  Of, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Died:  6 Mar 1919  Place:  , , , France
Wife's Name
Mae MINN

Born:  Abt. 1892  Place: 

one child listed as still living.

It will be very interesting to find out where his body is today.

From Lori:

I am pretty sure the cemetery is Suresnes, Ile de France, France. The American military cemetery at Suresnes was established in 1917 by the Graves Registration Service of the Army Quartermaster Corps. A majority of the World War I dead buried there died of wounds or sickness in hospitals located in Paris or at other places administered by the Services of Supply. (Many were victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.) The graves area consists of four burial plots: three of World War I, with a total of 1541 graves, and one of World War II, containing the graves of 24 unknown soldiers, sailors, or airmen.

At least one of the names (Ernest Bisbee) on the list is buried there. I didn’t find any family trees looking for Charles Vallier.

Thanks to both of you for helping to fill in the pieces. Perhaps someday someone looking for information about their ancestors will find this photo online.

Update: Thank you to Natalie Karst for finding and sending the following two newspaper clippings relating to Walter C. Skole in the list above. Because of her sleuthing we now know the cemetery was Carbon Blanc and that it is possible the woman in the photo is Edith Wilson, wife of President Woodrow Wilson.

It's always so rewarding when I post something and even more comes back to me than I initially posted. I can't thank those who participate enough. It's a little thread of history.

Click on images to see them larger.

To see another post about a U.S. soldier who lost his life during war please visit my link to the Sgt. C. E. Mower which now contains many new images from the shipboard newsletter from the 1940s provided by reader D. Kauffman.

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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.

The VETERANS AMONG US

These are the men we celebrate on Veterans Day. These are the men we celebrate on Memorial Day. The truth is that we have no idea how many of these young men never returned to their homes to share meals with their families, thus no idea which holiday is appropriate for each of them.


Click on image to see it larger.

I have no information about this photo, but can surmise it was taken of US troops during World War II in the Pacific theater. After having seen so many war movies it almost looks like a still from a Hollywood production. It could have been taken from the miniseries The Pacific.

Nearly hidden among all of these men, waiting for their rations, is one fellow who looks like every GI you've ever seen in a World War II movie. But these guys aren't in costume. These guys didn't have fancy trailers to go to between takes. These guys were walking in the mud, swatting the mosquitos, complaining about the food, and unsure what their futures held.

We remember this weekend, November 11th, those who have served our country in too many wars.

This is my submission for this weeks Sepia Saturday. The theme photo showed women working as telephone operators, part of a machine. I went with men working as part of a war machine.

Deconstructing the OLD WEST: The Camel at Drum Barracks in 1863

Well, the wait is over. Here in its entirety is the image with the camel. I bought this last week just thinking it was a very cool Old West shot. I had no idea what I had.

Click on image to see it larger.

As I usually do when I’ve purchased a new photo, I scan the image very large to see the details. I was dumbfounded when I realized the one animal was a camel. I immediately thought of the history of camels in the West and how they were used a lot in Nevada. So, I thought I could do a net search to find out the time period when the camels were in use, hoping to narrow down a date for this image. Within a few clicks I was confronted with my image on a website called West Coast Civil War Collectors in an article written by Michael K. Sorenson, a member of this collectors group. It was sort of mind-numbing because I don’t actually expect to see a copy of something I’ve bought. I realize each time I purchase a photograph that there are probably other copies floating around all over the country, but other than a Mervyn Silberstein print, which I knew was a commercial print, I just never expect to see copies of these old scraps of paper. But how fortuitous to actually be able to find this image and some of the history behind it.

In the article written by Michael K. Sorenson he provided the following information about the photo:

A close-up of a U.S. Army camel at Drum Barracks, California during the Civil War. The camel is a one-humped Arabian camel (also called a Dromedary), native to the Middle East, as opposed to a two-humped Asian variety known as a Bactrain. This is the only image known to exist documenting the presence of camels in the U. S. Military. The carte de visite, of which there are two known copies, is attributed to photographer Rudolph D’Heureuse. In 1863, D’ Heureuse, a Frenchman, published a series of 41 images entitled “the Photographic Views of the Mohave Route, el Dorado Canyon and Fort Mohave.” An identical image to that above is held along with others of D’Heureuse’s 41 views by the Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley. The French artist made his image studies while accompanying the California Survey Expedition in 1863. the image was made sometime prior to November 1863 when the camels were taken to Benicia Barracks and placed on auction. (CDV courtesy Drum Barracks Garrison Society). (SOURCE: West Coast Civil War Collectors)

The line about there only being two known copies of the image was fascinating. We now know there are actually at least three. So how many more copies are out there? Will we ever know?

I then did a search of Calisphere, the University of California’s digital library, and found what is probably the original glass plate which shows that my image is a cropped image.

(SOURCE: UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library)

The plate is the one owned by the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, California. So did the photographer, Rudolph D’Heureuse, put the black crop marks on the image or was this done by someone else with intentions of making prints to sell? Apparently there is no easily available answer to this.

The next site I found was a forum called the Authentic-Campaigner: A Website for the Authentic Civil War Living Historian. Someone called “Fatback and Beans” posted an interesting piece about the photo with a few more details to put the image in context.

Some time last year Zachary Whitlow posted a copy of a news article, that appeared in The Daily Breeze newspapers here in California, in a thread (also lost in the crash) about a rare "government camel" CDV image up for auction on eBay that was ultimately won by the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum (http://www.drumbarracks.org ). Unfortunately some of the information given in the article about the image was based on supposition or was just flat out incorrect when compared to what I had found in my own search for a copy of the image in various archives. The article prompted me to contact the director of the Drum Barracks Museum with the information I had and provided a link to what I had found online. After receiving a reply from the director of the museum I posted the information about the image and it's origins for the forum's benefit.

I had searched the online catalog listings of the National Archives, Library of Congress, and the California State Archives for copies of this image. While the NARA and LOC sites yielded nothing on the image in question, I was more successful with the Online Archive of California site (http://www.oac.cdlib.org ). It was found to be one of a series of images taken sometime in the period between May and late December of 1863.

I believe that to be the time frame because of the presence of members of Co I, 4th California Volunteer Infantry (determined due to Captain Atchison of Co. I being ID'd by name in at least one of the photos he appears in) being present at Fort Mojave. They were at Drum Barracks until May 1863, and at Fort Mojave until March 1865 (the photos of these soldiers were the subject of a different post, also lost). The camels were at the Government Depot in New San Pedro (Wilmington) until late December when it was decided to walk them up the coast route to Benecia and they were sold at auction in 1864 to finally get them out of the Army's hair.

One thing that quickly becomes apparent when comparing this photo to the CDV image in the eBay auction is that there is more to the original image that was cropped out of the CDV printing. There is also a black line box, which appears to be a cropping guide, that looks like it is etched into the glass plate.

The image was taken at the Government Depot located near Phineas Banning’s wharf in New San Pedro and is looking southward along the main street in the town (it would later be called Canal Street) which leads to the wharf. The image shows what some people think is an Arabian (one-hump) camel, otherwise known as a Dromedary. But upon close examination it is indeed a Bactrian (two-hump) camel fitted with a pack for carrying cargo. Yes, I know what you’re thinking. It’s a novel concept for the government to actually utilize a beast of burden for the intended purpose that it was originally purchased for, but there it is. Looking at the camel’s front legs, you can see that there is what I believe to be a man standing next to the camel. It’s unclear if he is on the side closest the camera, and blends in with the body of the camel so he can’t be made out, or if he is on the far side.

To me, the two figures on the loading dock of the warehouse look like civilians in frocks and top hats rather than officers in shakos as one person suggested on the original thread. If they are civilians, we could very well be looking at Phineas Banning and Benjamin D. Wilson themselves. A photographer in town taking pictures certainly would have been a rare occurrence, and getting the two most prominent citizens in an image wouldn’t be such an odd thing. I would be interested in what opinions the rest of membership has.

There are a number of some soldiers, most probably from Camp Drum (a mile distant in the opposite direction from the view of the camera), and what appear to be some civilians around the depot. These could be teamsters contracted for the transportation of supplies to the outlying camps and forts, townspeople, or even members of the expedition the photographer traveled with. The soldiers would be from Companies A, C, or E, 4th California Volunteer Infantry who were stationed at Camp Drum (Drum Barracks) during the period the photo was taken.

The Government Depot at New San Pedro was established in October 1861 when the depot in Los Angeles, that W. S. Hancock had recently vacated for the east, was relocated to the harbor. The depot handled the mountains of supplies that were to help prepare Col. James Carleton’s California Column for it’s march to meet Confederate forces invading the territories of Arizona and New Mexico with California as their ultimate goal. The depot continued to support the troops at the outlying camps and forts under the mantle of the Military District of Southern California (stretching from the Mexican border to the Owens Valley and from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River) for the duration of the war.

The building the camel is in front of is the Quartermaster warehouse and office. The building farther back, which is a mirror image of the QM building, is the Commissary office and warehouse. The shed in the distance is the depot’s blacksmith’s shop, to the right of that shed, hidden by the Commissary building, should be the depot’s wheelwright’s shop. The depot stretches to the right of the photo out of the frame. Unseen are the stables, the large barn at the far end, and the wagon shed along the far side, bringing us back to the Commissary building, forming a large rectangular complex one block wide by two blocks long with corrals and stalls in the center. (SOURCE: Authentic-Campaigner)

To read more about the camp click on the source link above.

So who was the photographer Rudolph Rudolph d’Heureuse? Turns out to be a pretty darn interesting fellow. I found the following biographical information at Google Books in a book entitled Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865 by Peter Palmquist and Thomas Kailbourn.

D’Heureuse, Rudolph Photographer, mining engineer, surveyor, inventor; active California, Nevada, Arizona (traveling from San bernardino, Calif., to Fort Mojave, Ariz.) 1863

Rudolph d’Heureuse was one of those frontier Renaissance men who seemingly possessed unlimited sources of practical know-how. Mining engineer, metallurgist, prospector, surveyor, topographer, and inventor were some of the hats that he wore in the decade of the 1860s alone. He was also the first cameraman to photograph the Mojave Desert.

Nothing is known of d’Heureuse’s early life, but evidently he was born and educated in France. Two pieces of information show that d’Heureuse came to California in 1849; one “R Heureuse” was listed as among the horde of California bound travelers who arrived in Panama City, Panama, in March 1849, and Rudloph d’Heureuse was a forty-niner in good standing of the San Francisco Pioneer Association. Although no documentation of his activities during the 1850s has surfaced, as early as 1862 he was prospecting in the Mojave Desert for mining claims that he registered in his own name. It was probably in 1863 that, equipped with a wet-plate camera outfit, d’Heureuse photographed the route between San Bernardino, California, and Fort Mojave, Arizona Territory, as well as making a side trip to El Dorado Canyon, Nevada Territory. D’Heureuse’s exact purpose is unknown, but it is likely that he performed this work for the California State Geological Survey. The subject matter that he photographed was varied, but his interest was clearly in topographical and scientific documentation. His photographs included views of army installations, isolated habitations along the route, general scenic overviews, group portraits of Paiute Indians and military personnel, and close-up studies of desert vegetation. A number of his photographs depicted camp scenes of tents, wagons and teams, and men playing cards and checkers. D’Heureuse’s 1863 photographic work is significant as the oldest extend body of survey photographs of the Desert Southwest. (SOURCE: Pioneer Photographers of the Far West: A Biographical Dictionary, 1840-1865)

To read more about d’Heureuse click on the source link above.

Once I posted the first part of the "deconstructed" photo I knew someone might recognize the image. Well, reader IntenseGuy posted the following comment after I posted part 4:

I want to say this is Camp Drum (now located in Los Angeles).
In fact, if there is a camel in this photo somewhere... :)

Well, the jig was up. Someone had identified the image by finding a website called Military Museum.org. There around three-quarters of the way down the page is my image. Apparently it’s also Herbert M. Hart’s image according to the following caption beneath the photo:

Camels came to Camp Drum as almost final chapter in pre-Civil War experiment. 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. Although this picture is identified officially -as Drum Barracks, buildings resemble quartermaster and commissary storehouses at Wilmington Depot. (Illustration courtesy of Herbert M. Hart) (SOURCE: Military Museum)

Click on the source link above to read some of the history of Camp Drum, including maps and images.

So, how did a camel end up standing around in San Pedro, California?

The U.S. Camel Corps was a mid-nineteenth century experiment by the United States Army in using camels as pack animals in the Southwest United States.

While the camels proved to be hardy and well-suited to travel through the region, the Army declined to adopt them for military use. Horses were frightened of the unfamiliar animals, and their unpleasant dispositions made them difficult to manage.

Origin   In 1836, Major George H. Crosman encouraged the United States Department of War to use camels for transportation in campaigns against Native Americans in Florida during the Seminole Wars because of their ability to survive on little food and water. His arguments won the attention of Senator Jefferson Davis. It was not until after the U.S.-Mexican War (1846–1848), when the US forces were required to campaign in arid and desert regions, that officials began to take the idea seriously.

Newly appointed as Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce, Jefferson Davis found the Army needed to improve transportation in the southwestern US, which he and most observers thought a great desert. (The adventurer Josiah Harlan was lobbying for the Army to use camels.) The rough terrain and dry climate were considered too harsh for the horses and mules regularly used by the Army. Among those supporting the alternative mounts was Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale. When his unit had taken the arid southern route, it ran out of water, endangering both men and beasts, and was attacked by Apaches. Beale thought camels superior for transport in such an inhospitable landscape. He was influenced by reading Évariste Régis Huc's Recollections of a Journey Through Tartary, Thibet [Tibet], and China in 1852, which extolled the camel's virtues. Ironically, camels originated in North America but had died out in their home continent due to hunting and climate change; their descendants survived only in Asia, Africa and in South America as llamas.

On March 3, 1855, the US Congress appropriated $30,000 for the project. Major Henry C. Wayne was assigned to procure the camels. On June 4, 1855, Wayne departed New York City on board the USS Supply, under the command of then-Lieutenant David Dixon Porter, a cousin of Beale.

The ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and arrived in Smyrna on January 30, 1856, where it loaded 21 (some reports say 31) camels. Two weeks later it departed with the camels and five handlers for the Gulf of Mexico. On April 29, 1856, the Supply arrived at Indianola, Texas. Large swells made the transferring the camels to a shallower draft ship for landing impossible; both ships had to go to the mouth of the Mississippi River to find calmer waters for the transfer. The Fashion arrived at Indianola and unloaded the camels on May 14, 1856. A second shipment of forty-one camels arrived on February 10, 1857.

Use in the Southwest   On June 4, 1856, the Army loaded the camels and they were driven to Camp Verde via Victoria and San Antonio.[1] Reports from initial tests were largely positive. The camels proved to be exceedingly strong, and were able to move quickly across terrain which horses found difficult. Their legendary ability to go without water proved valuable on an 1857 survey mission led by Lt. Edward Fitzgerald Beale. He rode a camel from Fort Defiance to the Colorado River and his team used 25 camels on the trip. The survey team took the camels into California, where they were stationed at the Benicia Arsenal.

During a 1859 survey of the Trans-Pecos region to find a shorter route to Fort Davis, the Army used the camels again. Under the command of Lt. Edward Hartz and Lt. William Echols, the team surveyed much of the Big Bend area. In 1860, Echols headed another survey team through the Trans-Pecos that employed the Camel Corps.

End of the experiment   With the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Camel Corps was mostly forgotten. Handlers had had difficulty with their camels spooking the horses and mules. Beale offered to keep the Army's camels on his property, but Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton rejected the offer. Many of the camels were sold to private owners; others escaped into the desert throughout the West and British Columbia. Beale's favorite, the white camel "Seid", fought with another camel during rutting season and was killed by a crushing blow to head. Seid's bones were sent to the Smithsonian Institution.[3] Feral camels continued to be sighted in the Southwest through the early 1900s, with the last reported sighting in 1941 near Douglas, Texas.

Hi Jolly (Hadji Ali), an Ottoman citizen, came to the US as the lead camel driver. He lived out his life in the US. After his death in 1902, he was buried in Quartzsite, Arizona. His grave is marked by a pyramid-shaped monument topped with a metal profile of a camel.

Frank Laumeister, a veteran of the corps, bought several camels from the Army. He took his herd to the new Colony of British Columbia in 1862-1863, where he used the animals to carry freight on the Douglas Road, Old Cariboo Road and other gold rush-era routes there. Between the region's rocky trails and roads, which cut up the camels' feet, and the hostility between camels and mules, the experiment was a failure.

Laumeister put his camels out to pasture, from which some escaped. The last sighting of a feral camel in British Columbia was in the 1930s. Their presence in local history is reflected in the name of the Camelsfoot Range near Lillooet, and in a local basin called "the Camoo". (SOURCE: Wikipediahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Camel_Corps)

As to that lone camel in the photo, we’ll never know its story, but there are some interesting tales of camels roaming the West, including this one supplied by MrCachet from Old Paper Art.

In 1883, a woman was found trampled to death and, on her body and a nearby bush, were clumps of reddish fur. Large hoof prints were found in the area, but locals were perplexed. A short time later, a large animal careened into a tent in which two miners lay sleeping. Though they were unable to identify the beast, again, large hoof prints and tufts of red hair were left behind. After more incidents occurred, the locals finally recognized the large animal as a camel. Soon, people began to report seeing the camel, who one rancher said carried a rider, though the rider appeared to be dead. The next report came from a group of prospectors who saw the camel and while watching him, spied something falling from its back. As the beast moved on, the prospectors went to see what had fallen and discovered a human skull. For the next several years, numerous others spied the camel, who by this time had been dubbed the "Red Ghost,” carrying its headless rider. However, in 1893, when an Arizona farmer found the red camel grazing in his garden, he shot and killed the beast. By this time, the large camel had shaken free of its dead rider, but still bore the saddle and leather straps with which the corpse had been attached.

There was much speculation as to who the mysterious dead rider the camel had carried for several years might have been. One tale alleges that the rider was a young soldier, who was afraid of the camels, and therefore, was having much difficulty in learning how to ride them. In order to teach him how, his fellow soldiers tied him to the top of the beast, determined that he would get over his fear. They then hit the camel on the rump and the beast took off running. Though the soldiers pursued the camel and his rider, the red beast easily outpaced them and escaped into the desert. Neither the camel, nor his helpless rider, were ever seen again. (SOURCE: Legends of America)

As you can see, this little scrap of paper purchased from a bin at an antique store turned out to have quite a history. Now the question is, how did it end up in the bin?

Deconstructing the OLD WEST: Part 5

What the...?

Deconstructing the OLD WEST: Part 4

The men watching the men, and the soldier watching the photographer.


Click on image to see it larger.

The THREE SOLDIERS

Click on image to see it larger.

WORLD WAR I THEATER mystery

This real photo post card is a companion piece to the last image I posted from World War I. Another mystery. I have no idea where it was taken.

Click on either image to see it larger.

The MYSTERY AFTER THE WAR

I have no information about this photo other than it was given to me by my best friend. It is a real photo post card sent by her grandfather.

Click on either image to see it larger.




Obviously, it's military personnel taken six months and two days after the armistice with Germany ending World War I. Other than that, it's a mystery.

I hope someone steps forward someday to identify this place, but I'm highly doubtful. Those with real memories of the war are all but gone. This is just a tattered and lost image.

From WJY of The New Found Photography comes the following information:

The armistice of November 11 would end the fighting, but not the war. The actual peace treaty would be negotiated between January and June of 1919. The Treaty of Versailles would be signed on June 28. Until then, American soldiers stayed in their barracks wating to see if they would go home or back to the front. This is, most likely, a shot of Americans hanging out near their barracks.

The UNKNOWN VETERANS

From what I can determine, Camp Pike was located in Arkansas. You can see photos of the camp here, here, and here.

To see more photos like the one above with the flag go here, here, here, here, and here. (SOURCE: 3rd Division Photos)

We're just a few years away from the anniversary of the start of World War I. Doesn't seem that we've progressed very much since then towards resolving conflicts peacefully. One current presidential candidate has even said that should he be elected we can expect to go to war with another country. Odd how politicians are always so cavalier about war. They love to get their photos taken in front of flags. So both patriots and cowards like to use the flag for their own purpose. It's up to us to determine which sort of person they are.

This is my contribution for the Sepia Saturday post for its 100th anniversary.

The SOLDIER AND THE LADY

I find this photo fascinating for a few reasons.

The photo is in a frame and unfortunately the front of the image is now glued to the glass. There's no way I know of to remove the image without damaging it. So it will always be stuck going through life with a cheesy dime store metal frame.

Click on image to see it larger.

The second thing that interests me is the fellows uniform. Anyone have any idea what it is? There's something Russian looking about the couple, but I could be wrong. I'd certainly be fascinated to hear what others think.

And then there's the woman with the heavy framed glasses without stems. Imagine keeping those on your nose all the time without your ears doing any of the heavy lifting.

What was their history? Did he go to war? Did he return? Were there children? All that information is lost with time.

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If you don't read my other blog, Tattered and Lost Ephemera, the ¡Viva Fiesta! image in the left margin will seem out of place on a photography blog. So to find out a little bit of history about it click here.

Lost and ALONE

I have no information about this photograph. I don't know if this World War I graveyard is stateside or in Europe. It's sad, mysterious, and just plain interesting. Nothing is written on the back. Perhaps someday someone will stumble across it in Flickr who knows something about it.

Click on image to see it larger.

List of names that I was able to clearly read:

1. Charles A. Vogt / Pvt 50Co.T.C. 17 Grand Div / Died 1919
   
2. Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs  / Died Mar. 6. 1919
3. John C Zitzmann / Col or Sgt Heqrs Co 312 ??? / Died Oct. 13. 1918
4. Macgo Alston / Pvt CoD 304 Labor ??? / Died Jan. 6. 1919
5. Robert Illig / Pvt Co A 38 Engrs / Died 
6. Edward P Bowe?? / Wagoner
7. Clarence V. Fanning / Pvt Co D 312 Engrs / Died Jan. 7. 1919
8. Michael J Connolly / Pvt Hdqs Co ??? / Died ??? 
9. Walter C Skole / Mechanic CoG 344 Inf / Died ???
10. Albert C. Welch / Sgt. CoF 348 Inf / Died Feb. 5. 1919
11. Ernest Bisbee / Wagoner Sply Co 348 Inf / Died Nov. 4. 1918
12. Eugene B. Ball / Corpl 15 Engrs / Died Mar. 13. 1919 
13. David L Dosh??? / Cook CoM ??? / Died Feb. 9. 1919

To see the people in the photo even larger click here.

Update: The net is an amazing place. This photo can now be put into context with the world. Eloh, from the hysterically funny blog http://elohssanatahw.blogspot.com/, and Lori, a geneologist from http://www.familytreesmaycontainnuts.com, together filled in the pieces. I present to you their findings.

From Eloh:

I looked at the larger photo, wow, there is some "silent film" going on isn't there. A whole movie in the expressions and body language.

The woman, possibly Graves Registration? She's wearing what seems to be a campaign ribbon on her lapel. It could be a flower stem or a pencil in her right hand and it looks like papers between her purse and body.  I'm stumped with the pockets both full of hankies. They could be scented, but the exhumed remains really wouldn't be that stinky.  Maybe she just has a heart, maybe fashion?

The full bird colonel is obviously upset with her. He is used to getting things his way.  On his collar is the Engineer insignia and the Combat Infantrymans. Color is a problem with the rank of the other two, but one thing about the Army, some things stay the same.  I'll still be guessing that the oak leaf is gold and that Major is the Colonels' Aid. (Personel secretary).  Color problems again, and again it would normally be a silver bar of a First Lieutenant, could be a Captain at that angle of the photo, but he is young and not paying attention to his surroundings, he is only interested in what that Bird Colonel wants. He is also wearing Engineer Insignia. I can't make out the patch, left sholder it would tell us what "Army" he was assigned to. 
(7th Army has been in Europe since  WWII)

I noticed in your list of names a Junior and thought it the most likely to connect up to something useful.  I was lucky as he did have a child.

This is a relocation of soldiers killed in France.

Charles J. Vallier Jr. / Sgt. 311 Engrs  / Died Mar. 6. 1919
 
 Born:  10 Jul 1888  Place:  Of, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin  
 Died:  6 Mar 1919  Place:  , , , France
Wife's Name
 Mae MINN   
 
Born:  Abt. 1892  Place:    
 
one child listed as still living.

It will be very interesting to find out where his body is today.

From Lori:

I am pretty sure the cemetery is Suresnes, Ile de France, France. The American military cemetery at Suresnes was established in 1917 by the Graves Registration Service of the Army Quartermaster Corps. A majority of the World War I dead buried there died of wounds or sickness in hospitals located in Paris or at other places administered by the Services of Supply. (Many were victims of the influenza epidemic of 1918-1919.) The graves area consists of four burial plots: three of World War I, with a total of 1541 graves, and one of World War II, containing the graves of 24 unknown soldiers, sailors, or airmen.
 
At least one of the names (Ernest Bisbee) on the list is buried there. I didn’t find any family trees looking for Charles Vallier.

Thanks to both of you for helping to fill in the pieces. Perhaps someday someone looking for information about their ancestors will find this photo online.