The Wham Paymaster Robbery

On 11 May 1889, eleven Buffalo Soldiers were ambushed on an Arizona road guarding the United States Army payroll. The money has never been found. Major Joseph Wham was carrying $28,345 in gold and silver coin - about 250 pounds of metal - between Fort Grant and Fort Thomas. His escort was eleven Black soldiers of the 24th Infantry and the 10th Cavalry. Three miles north of Cedar Springs, someone had rolled a boulder into the road. Above it, fifty feet up the slope, someone had built stone breastworks and propped cut yucca stalks along the wall to make the position look twice as strong as it was. That takes time. That takes planning. The fight ran about ninety minutes. Eight of the eleven were wounded. Sergeant Benjamin Brown and Corporal Isaiah Mays received the Medal of Honor. Eight privates received Certificates of Merit. Then a federal marshal, a federal prosecutor, a federal court and one hundred and sixty-five witnesses produced eight acquittals in two hours. The legend says the Old West was lawless - that there was nobody to call. There was somebody to call. The machinery was all there. It simply did not work.