# @downinnadesert on Instagram - **Type:** Image - **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DdrzPvWEq-d - **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/70864450-downinnadesert-instagram - **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/de150d1572.jpg - **Posted:** 2026-09-24T21:00:16.000+00:00 - **Account Owner:** Down In The Desert🌵 (@downinnadesert) — https://gondola.cc/downinnadesert ## Caption A Buffalo Soldier earned the Medal of Honor in Arizona Territory and ended up buried under a brick with a number scratched into it. Isaiah Mays was born into slavery in Virginia in 1858. He later enlisted in the Army and became a corporal in the 24th Infantry, serving in Arizona Territory. On May 11, 1889, Mays and 11 other Buffalo Soldiers were escorting an Army paymaster carrying more than $28,000 in gold and silver from Fort Grant to Fort Thomas. About 15 miles outside Pima, robbers blocked the road with a boulder and opened fire from above. The fight lasted nearly two hours. Eight of the 12 soldiers were wounded. Mays was shot in both legs, but after his sergeant went down, he took command and kept fighting. He eventually crawled roughly two miles to a ranch to get help. By the time help arrived, the payroll was gone. The soldiers recognized the attackers and identified them. Eleven men were arrested and eight went to trial, but an all-white jury acquitted every defendant. The money was never recovered. Mays and Sergeant Benjamin Brown received the Medal of Honor in 1890. Mays left the Army in 1893. Decades later, after being denied a federal pension, he ended up at the Territorial Insane Asylum in Phoenix, which also housed people who were sick or had nowhere else to go. He died there in 1925 at 67. A Medal of Honor recipient was buried in the asylum cemetery with only a numbered marker. In 2001, he finally received a proper Medal of Honor headstone. In 2009, his remains were moved to Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. 84 years after he died. Send us your Arizona stories to be featured on the page. #IsaiahMays #BuffaloSoldiers #ArizonaHistory #Arizona #DownInnaDesert ## Stats - **Views:** 0 - **Likes:** 557 - **Shares:** 0 - **Comments:** 6 ## Credits No public credits are recorded here. This does not identify who made the post. ## Tags buffalosoldiers, downinnadesert, arizonahistory, isaiahmays, arizona --- Copyright (c) Gondola