Isaiah Mays was born a slave in Virginia on February 16, 1858. He was freed by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.

Mays first joined the Army at age 28, and re-enlisted at the age of 33. Isaiah Mays left the Army in 1893 and worked as a laborer in Arizona and New Mexico.

In 1923, thirty three years after receiving his Medal of Honor, Isaiah Mays applied to the United States Government for a federal pension. He was denied a federal pension on the basis of “Ineligibility.”

CPL Mays was eventually committed to the Arizona State Hospital, which at the time housed not only the mentally ill and tuberculosis patients, but also cared for the chronically indigent. It is not clear whether CPL Mays was admitted because of indigence or a medical condition, as he died of a condition known as "Paralysis of the Insane", better known today as a "stroke."  CPL Mays death certificate indicates a contributing factor in his death as "Cerebral Hemorrhage."

Mays died at the Arizona State Hospital on May 2, 1925. As was customary at the hospital at that time, Isaiah was wrapped in a sheet, buried in the ground, his remains covered in lime (to promote rapid deterioration of the body), and the grave marked with a brick etched with a number (no name).

For decades after his death, Mays’ grave was marked only by a modest bricklike marker etched with a number. A fire at the hospital in 1935 destroyed the records of the interments within the Arizona State Hospital cemetery. Mays might have been forgotten had it not been for the efforts of hospital staff and a small group of Arizona veterans who identified Mays as one of the state’s recipients of the nation’s highest military honor.

In 2001, Mays finally received a Medal of Honor headstone from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, for his bravery of 110 years earlier. The headstone was unveiled just a few days before Memorial Day in 2001 at a formal ceremony, with members of the American Buffalo Soldiers in attendance.

Named after Army Paymaster Major Joseph Wham (pronounced like “bomb”)

Major Wham, along with his clerk, William Gibbon, and Private Caldwell, mule tender, climbed into a canopied ambulance driven by Buffalo Soldier, Private Hamilton Lewis, for the 46 mile trip to Fort Thomas from Fort Grant. The payroll of more than $28,000 in gold and silver coins was locked in an oak strongbox in the ambulance.

Carrying this kind of payload, Major Wham was heavily escorted by nine Buffalo Soldiers of the 24th Infantry on horseback, as well as a wagon that carried two privates of the 10th Cavalry (also an African-American regiment) that was driven by a civilian employee of the Quartermaster Department. All but Major Wham, his clerk and the two drivers were armed. At the last minute, they were joined by a black female gambler named Frankie Campbell, who wanted to ride along with them to be in Fort Thomas when the soldiers got paid.

About 15 miles west of Pima in the Gila River Valley, just after midday, the caravan came to a stop as a large boulder was blocking the road. When the wagons were unable to get around it, the soldiers lay down their weapons in order to dislodge the large rock. However, before they made any progress, bullets began to hail down upon the soldiers from a ledge 60 above on an adjacent hill. Three of the 12 mules pulling the wagons were killed and the other animals panicked, rearing and pulling both vehicles off the road.

Pvt. Hamilton Lewis was shot in the side, knocking him to the ground. Frankie Campbell, approximately fifty yards ahead of the escort, reined her horse to return, but the horse reared and threw her. Several of the robbers called out to her by name, as they shot at her. She recognized Webb, having seen him and met him previously at Fort Thomas. She was able to crawl into a rocky area, where she observed the entire fight from start to finish.

In the meantime, the soldiers scrambled for their guns and returned fire. As the bullets continued to rain down upon them from three heavily fortified sides, Sergeant Benjamin, unable to get to adequate cover, returned fire with his revolver. Sgt. Brown was eventually shot five times before succumbing to his wounds. Private James Young ran through heavy gunfire and carried Sgt. Brown more than 100 yards to safety. With Sgt. Brown out of the fight, Cpl. Isaiah Mays took command, and continued to resist until almost all of his men had been taken down with severe wounds. Corporal Isaiah Mays ordered his men to retreat to a creek bed about 300 yards away, despite Major Wham’s protests. The battle continued to rage on for about a half and a hour as the soldiers valiantly tried to protect the payload. However, with Major Wham’s eleven man escort severely wounded, the battle had become extremely one-sided. Near the end of the gun battle, Cpl. Mays, without the knowledge of Major Wham, "walked and crawled two miles to Cottonwood Ranch and gave the alarm."

With the soldiers under cover and severely wounded, the robbers then made their way to the ambulance wagon, cracked the strongbox with an axe, and carried off the U.S. Treasury sacks filled with the coins. As the outlaws made their escape, the soldiers counted 12 of them. At about 3:00 p.m. those, who could, wearily made their way from the creek bed to the wagons. The soldiers were able to splice harnesses together, gather some of the surviving mules, and finally made their way to Fort Thomas, arriving about 5:30. In the meantime, Frankie Campbell had been ordered to tend to the severely wounded, including Sergeant Benjamin Brown who would be brought in later. Amazingly, all of the soldiers would survive their wounds. Wilfred Webb, a suspected robber, was slightly wounded.

During the gun battle, several of the bandits (who had not bothered to cover their faces) had been recognized, and within days of the robbery, U. S. Marshal William Kidder Meade, with the assistance of soldiers and the Graham County Sheriff, had 11 men under arrest, most of whom were residents of the nearby village of Pima. Most were Mormon with political connections, and the accused men were defended by the famed lawyer Marcus Aurelius Smith. After a hearing, seven of the prisoners were bound over for trial at the fall session of United States District Court for the First Judicial District Court, in Tucson. The Defendants were Gilbert Webb, who was the Mayor of Pima at the time and thought to have been the leader of the bandit gang, as well as his son, Wilfred. Both had been suspected of numerous thefts in the area. Also set to be tried were brothers, Lyman and Warren Follett, David Rogers, Thomas Lamb, and Mark Cunningham, all of whom worked as cowboys for Gilbert Webb. Interestingly, while all of the men were charged with the robbery, no one was ever charged for the shooting.

The trial in Federal Court in Tucson was held in November and would last 33 days, creating a sensation in the Southwest. From the beginning, the trial involved major politics and infighting, including removing the original judge. One hundred and sixty-five witnesses testified at the trial, including five Buffalo Soldiers who identified three of the accused. Another witness testified that he had personally seen some of the men hiding the loot in a haystack and burning the U.S. treasury sacks. Others testified they had seen members of the accused in the area the day before, probably preparing their “hideouts” from which the bullets hailed. Interestingly, Frankie Campbell, who had stated she recognized several of the bandits, including leader, Gilbert Webb, was never called to testify. All of the men were acquitted.

The money was never recovered, and a combination of racism and local politics prevented justice being done. Although the men were charged with stealing the payroll, they were never brought to trial for the shootings. All of the suspects were acquitted of the charges, although some of the black witnesses testified against them by name.

The Committee on Military Affairs of the U.S. House of Representatives, after examining the evidence, stated that "the fact that the President ... has seen fit to award certificates of merit and medals of honor to the members of Major Wham's escort . . . is the highest evidence of the fact that they displayed unusual courage and skill in defense of the Government's property." Furthermore, the committee concluded, "all the evidence . . . shows conclusively that all was done by Major Wham and the Buffalo Soldier escort that men could do to protect the Government's property…."

On February 15, 1890 Sergeant Benjamin Brown and Corporal Isaiah Mays were awarded the Medal of Honor, and eight privates received Certificates of Merit.

Probably the most exhaustive book written on the robbery in modern times is Ambush at Bloody Run: The Wham Paymaster Robbery of 1889: A Story of Politics, Religion, Race, and Banditry in Arizona Territory by Larry D. Ball. A quicker account focusing on the suspects can be found online at True West magazine's site.

Sgt Benjamin Brown

Medal of Honor Recipient

Rank and organization: Sergeant, Company C, 24th U.S. Infantry.

Place and date: Arizona, 11 May 1889.

Entered service at: ------. Birth: Spotsylvania County, Va.

Date of issue: 19 February 1890.

Citation: Although shot in the abdomen, in a fight between a paymaster's escort and robbers, did not leave the field until again wounded through both arms.

During the time of the Wham robbery, he and his troop, Company C, 24th U.S. Infantry, were stationed at Fort Grant. He never fully recovered from his wounds and carried one of the bullets inside his body until his death on December 5, 1910 at Soldier's Home in Washington, D.C.

Major Wham stated that Sergeant Brown, a native of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, "made his entire fight from open ground."