The Spirit Horses

Western writers of America 1976 best novel.
A great admirer of Louis Napoleon's Second Empire, Jeff Davis knew the French were policing the Sahara with camel troops. He'd never seen the Sahara or the American desert, so... a head of dromedaries was purchased from the Ottoman Empire in Smyrna. And a squad of trainers was hired to come with the camels and show American cavalry troopers how it was done. Meanwhile in the blazing inferno of the desert, Diablito, deadliest of all the Nadenes, carried out his campaign of raid and plander, unmindfull of the strange patrol riding out to end his savage trail.