US Brigadier General Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale (February 4, 1822 - April 22, 1893) is best known for his carrying out former Secretary of War Jefferson Davis' "Camel Corps" experiment in the Coachella Valley of California. He was later appointed Surveyor General of California and Nevada by President Abraham Lincoln and helped keep California in the Union fold.

Early years in the Navy

Born in the District of Columbia, Beale's father, George, who was a paymaster in the Navy, had earned a Congressional Medal for Valor in the War of 1812. His mother, Emily, was the daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxtun. Ned was a student at Georgetown College when, at the solicitation of his widowed mother, President Andrew Jackson appointed him to the Naval School in Phildelphia, Pennsyvlania. Beale graduated in 1842.

After a promotion to acting sailing master, he sailed for California in October 1845 in the frigate Congress under Commodore Robert F. Stockton. But 20 days later Stockton sent Beale back to Washington with important dispatches. After a long and roundabout voyage, he reached Washington in March 1846. Promoted to the grade of master, he sailed for Panama and then overtook the Congress at Callo, Peru, in May 1846.

Hostilities with Mexico had already begun when the vessel reached Monterey, California on July 20. After reaching San Diego, California, Stockton dispatched Beale to serve with the land forces. He and a small body of men under Lt. Archibald Gillespie joined General Stephen Kearney's column just before the disastrous Battle of San Pasqual on December 6, 1846. After the Mexican Army surrounded the small American force and threatened to destroy it, Beale and two other men (his Delaware Indian servant and Kit Carson) crept through the Mexican lines and made their way to San Diego for reinforcements. Their actions saved Kearney's soldiers. Two months later (Feb. 9, 1847), although Beale still suffered from the effects his adventure, Stockton again sent him east with dispatches. Beale reached Washington about June 1. In October he appeared as a defense witness for John C. Frémont at the "Pathfinder's" court martial.

Within the next two years, Beale made six more journeys across the country. On the second of these (July-September 1848), he crossed Mexico in disguise to bring the federal government proof of California's gold. After the fourth journey he married Pennsylvania Representative Samuel Edwards' daughter, Mary, on June 27, 1849. After making lieutenant on August 3, 1850, Beale resigned from the Navy in May 1851.

In California

He returned to California as a manager for W. H. Aspinwall and Commodore Stockton, who had acquired large properties in America's newest territory. On March 3, 1853, President Millard Fillmore appointed Beale Superintendent of Indian Affairs for California and Nevada. Congress appropriated $250,000 to improve native conditions in Beale's district. With a party of 13 others he left Washington for California on May 6, 1853. Beale's party crossed southern Colorado and southern Utah assessing the feasibility of the route for a transcontinental railroad. He reached [[Los Angeles, California] on August 22. Beale retained his position as superintendent until 1856. California Governor John Bigler also appointed him brigadier general in the state militia to give him additional authority to negotiate peace treaties between the Native Americans and the U.S. Army.

An 1857 experiment proposed by Davis four years prior caused Beale to leave Fort Defiance, New Mexico with a novel transport provider: 25 camels imported overseas from Tunis. His goal was to reach the Colorado River at the California/Arizona border. He did this, and made another trip with camels acting as pack animals in 1858-9, but because the camels scared horses and mules the United States Army declined to continue this experiment, despite Beale's belief that the camels had performed well.

Beale, as Surveyor General of California and Nevada, had an important Los Angeles County passage named after him due to his widening of a cut used by the Butterfield Stage. In 1862 he dispatched a crew of Chinese workers to widen an 1858 cut, which also reduced the climb by 50 feet (15 m). Beale's Cut, as it was known, lasted as a transportation passage through the modern day Newhall Pass area until the construction of the Newhall Tunnel was completed in 1910. Still in existence today, it is no longer passable by automobiles. Beale's Cut is difficult to find easily for modern day individuals in the Newhall Pass vicinity because it is fenced off from the public's view and not close enough to Sierra Highway to be easily discovered.

Retirement

The lands where Beale retired to after the Civil War - the 270,000 acre (1093 km²) Rancho Tejon (Tejon is badger in English) is today's present day Tejon Ranch, owned privately by Tejon Ranch Company - one of the oldest incorporated companies in California. The area is now referred to as Fort Tejon, Kern County, California at the Tejon Pass.

Beale, who had a house in Washington, DC as well as his Rancho Tejon dwelling, lived in both locations beginning in 1870. He died in Washington DC at his residence.

Legacy

Beale Air Force Base (formerly World War II's Camp Beale) was named to honor him, as were the two ships, USS Beale.

See also

Ridge Route - 1937 photograph of Beale's Cut

External links

• Californians and the Military (http://www.militarymuseum.org/EdBeale.html)
• The Tejon Ranch Company (http://www.tejonranch.com)