page_title: Robert Buffum
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Buffum / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Participants the Great Locomotive Chase of the American Civil War. A party led by James J. Andrews (Andrews' Raiders) hijacked a Confederate train and navigated it northwards, chased by the train conductor. Several of the raiders became the first recipients of the Medal of Honor. Seven of the raiders (James J. Andrews, William Campbell, Samuel Llewellyn, Samuel Robertson, Perry Shadrack, James Smith, George D. Wilson) are not pictured. Mark Wood, Private, Company C, 21st Ohio Infantry William J. Knight, Private, Company E, 21st Ohio Infantry Daniel A. Dorsey, Corporal, Company H, 33rd Ohio Infantry Robert Buffum, Private, Company H, 21st Ohio Infantry John A. Wilson, Private, Company C, 21st Ohio Infantry William Bensinger, Private, Company G, 21st Ohio Infantry William Reddick, Corporal, Company B, 33rd Ohio Infantry John Wollam, Private, Company C, 33rd Ohio Infantry William A. Fuller, train conductor who chased the raiders Wilson W. Brown, Private, Company F, 21st Ohio Infantry Samuel Slavens, Private, Company E, 33rd Ohio Infantry Elihu H. Mason, Sergeant, Company K, 21st Ohio Infantry Martin J. Hawkins, Corporal, Company A, 33rd Ohio Infantry Marian (or Marion) A. Ross, Sergeant Major, 2nd Ohio Infantry John R. Porter, Private, Company G, 21st Ohio Infantry Jacob Parrott, Private, Company K, 33rd Ohio Infantry John M. Scott, Sergeant, Company F, 21st Ohio Infantry Andrew Murphy, train machinist who chased the raiders William Pittinger, Sergeant Major, 21st Ohio Infantry
context_page_description: Robert Buffum was an American soldier who fought in the American Civil War. Buffum was the third person to receive the country's highest award for bravery during combat, the Medal of Honor, for his action during the Great Locomotive Chase in Georgia in April 1862. He was honored with the award on 25 March 1863.
context_section_description: Buffum was born on July 7, 1828 in Salem, Massachusetts and enlisted into the 21st Ohio Infantry at Gilead, Ohio on September 2, 1861. He was among a group of Ohio men (19 soldiers and 2 civilians) who volunteered to participate in a secret mission to disrupt Confederate communication. In April the group, led by James J. Andrews, which later came to be called Andrews' Raiders, boarded a train in Georgia. On April 12, after the train had stopped in Big Shanty, they commandeered the train's engine and three boxcars and headed towards Chattanooga, Tennessee. Under pursuit from the Confederates, they destroyed track and telegraph lines along the way. They never made it to Chattanooga but abandoned the engine. They were all captured within a week. Some of the men were hanged. Buffum was taken as a prisoner of war, but was eventually exchanged on 17 March 1863.
  Buffum died on July 20, 1871. His remains are interred in Auburn, New York.
caption: Andrew's Raiders - Robert Buffum is at #4 (Top row, 1st(2nd) from left)
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