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The Wham Paymaster Robbery ( ) was an armed robbery on a United States Army paymaster transporting over US$28,000 in gold and silver coins (about $ in present-day terms) and his escort that occurred on May 11, 1889. Major Joseph W. Wham was transporting a payroll from Fort Grant, Arizona Territory to Fort Thomas when he and his escort of eleven Buffalo Soldiers were ambushed. During the attack, the bandits wounded eight of the soldiers, forced them to retreat to cover, and stole the payroll. As a result of their actions under fire, Sergeant Benjamin Brown and Corporal Isaiah Mays were awarded the Medal of Honor while eight other soldiers received a Certificate of Merit. Eleven men, most from the nearby Mormon community of Pima, were arrested with eight tried on charges of robbery. At trial, all the accused were found not guilty, and the stolen money has never been recovered. ==Background== In April 1889, Special Order 37 directed all paymasters in the District of Arizona to pay troops mustered as of April 30. Major Joseph Washington Wham, a U.S. Army paymaster, was assigned Fort Bowie, Fort Grant, Fort Thomas, Fort Apache and Camp San Carlos. Wham and his clerk, William T. Gibbon, met a train carrying the payroll in Willcox on May 8. The paymaster performed his duties at Fort Bowie on May 9 and at Fort Grant on May 10. Early on May 11, Major Wham left Fort Grant with two mule-drawn carriages, a covered ambulance and an open wagon, for the journey to Fort Thomas. The remaining payroll consisted of US$28,345.10 in gold and silver coins and weighed an estimated . The commander of Fort Grant had assigned eleven enlisted Buffalo Soldiers from the 24th Infantry and 10th Cavalry to serve as an escort between his fort and Fort Thomas. In addition to the military personnel, there was a civilian contractor who drove the open wagon. The two non-commissioned officers leading the escort were armed with revolvers while the privates carried single shot rifles and carbines. Wham and the civilian members of the convoy were unarmed. Accompanying Wham on the journey was a black woman, Frankie Campbell (also known as Frankie Stratton). Campbell was the wife of a soldier stationed at Fort Grant and was going to collect gambling debts owed to her and her husband by soldiers stationed at Fort Thomas. There had never been an attack by highwaymen upon a paymaster within Arizona Territory prior to May 1889.〔 Despite this, there were several factors favoring such an attack. The territory was remote and had only a small scattered population. Many residents of Arizona Territory held the U.S. Federal government in low regard, feeling it ruled the territory from Washington with little interest in the territorial residents' well being. Compounding this was the fact that most white residents of Arizona had been either Confederates or Confederate sympathizers. Decades of hostilities between Washington and the Church of Latter-day Saints left hard feelings among the territory's Mormon population. Recent efforts to enforce the Edmunds Act, which made polygamy a felony, had increased anger among this group. Finally, strong racial biases were held by the white population against the black soldiers were exacerbated by Mormon teachings that placed blacks on a lower rung of society. This led to a situation where some area residents could have easily rationalized that the payroll would have been better spent supporting the local communities instead of in the hands of black soldiers who were seen as likely to spend it on immoral pursuits. The road to Fort Thomas went southwest to the town of Bonita before turning north and following the western side of Mount Graham. About from Fort Grant the road entered a pass leading to the Gila River valley. Wham's convoy reached Cedar Springs, in the pass, around noon and swapped his mules for fresh set that were waiting at the NN ranch. Campbell, whose horse was faster than Wham's wagons, had waited at a stagecoach half-way station a short distance further down the road. The station was operated by Mormon polygamist Wiley Holladay. Holladay was away that day, leaving his wives, Harriet and Eliza, to run the place. Wham and his escort reached the station around 12:45 pm at which time Campbell rejoined the group. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wham Paymaster Robbery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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