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Shopify.com.uk slash Spotify. In May of 1889, it had been nine years since the conclusion of Victoria's war, during which the 9th

cavalry and 10th cavalry fought Victoria's Apache warriors all over New Mexico and Texas.

It had been eight years since the murderous month of Apache attacks known as Nana's raid

in the summer of 1881, and it had been three years since Geronimo's final surrender.

Geronimo, Nana, and other Apache leaders were at a prison camp in Florida, and the

rest of the Apache were on the San Carlos Reservation and the Fort Apache Reservation in eastern Arizona.

In 1889, the threat of Apache attacks wasn't gone, but it was greatly diminished. The threat of

outlaws, however, was not diminished.

Major Joseph Washington Wham did not expect trouble on May 11, 1889. But as the U.S. Army paymaster

for southeastern Arizona territory, he always had to be ready for it. He was in charge of delivering money to

forts so soldiers could receive their salaries. At the end of April, he received an order to pick up

a shipment of gold and silver coins and deliver the appropriate payroll to five outposts in the

eastern part of the territory. The first two stops at Fort Bowie on May 9th and

Fort Grant on May 10th were uneventful, which wasn't overly surprising. The two forts were

close to each other, and they were both close to the railroad town of Wilcox. Even if Major Wham

didn't expect trouble on the next leg of the journey, it definitely

featured the most dangerous stretch of road.

That stretch was called Bloody Run for a reason.

It had been the site of a deadly Apache ambush seven years earlier, and if an ambush at that

site could work once, it could work again.

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