George H. Crosman

George Hampden Crosman (November 2, 1799 – May 28, 1882) was a career officer in the Regular Army of the United States who served primarily with the Quartermaster Corps. After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1823, Crosman served at various army posts in the Midwestern United States during the 1820s and 1830s. He was among the first army officers to propose the establishment of a U.S. Camel Corps to better transport supplies. As an officer in the Quartermaster Corps, he played a notable role in the Second Seminole War, the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. During the Civil War, he rose to the rank of brevet major general and held a number of important posts in the Quartermaster Corps, most notably as quartermaster of the Schuylkill Arsenal in Philadelphia, the army's largest supply depot of that era. Early career Born in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1799 to George Crosman and Amelia Keith Crosman, George H. Crosman enrolled in the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1819. After his graduation, he was commissioned second lieutenant in the 6th United States Infantry. During the 1820s, he served at various posts on the frontier with the 6th Infantry including: Fort Mackinac, Michigan; Fort Atkinson, Nebraska; and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. Crosman participated in General Atkinson's expedition up the Missouri River in 1825 and served in the Black Hawk War of 1832. As a line officer, he was detailed several times for various quartermaster duties, including during the Second Seminole War, until he was transferred from the Infantry to the Quartermaster Department in 1838. Crosman was among the first officers in the U.S. Army to advocate the military use of camels for transportation of supplies. In 1836, he submitted an extensive study on the subject to his superiors, proposing a U.S. Camel Corps. Subsequently, camels were successfully used in several minor army expeditions in the desert regions of the Southwestern United States in the 1840s and 1850s. By the time of the Civil War, however, the concept of a Camel Corps had been abandoned.