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Medal of Honor Recipient

David M. Buchanan

U.S. Navy · Interim 1871 - 1899

MOH-RC-002221Source-based record

The award

Representative medal image: early Navy star design and striped ribbon. Not a portrait or a photograph of this recipient’s own medal.
Navy Medal of HonorAction-era reference: 1879

Portrait not yet available. Representative medal shown.

About this image

Presentation date is not usable for design selection. This is an action-era reference; a later presentation or replacement medal may differ.

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Medal of Honor

July 15, 1879

off The Battery, New York Harbor, New York, USA

Rank at action
Apprentice
Service
U.S. Navy
Conflict
Interim 1871 - 1899
Unit or command
U.S.S. Saratoga

The Citation

Sources ↓
On board the U.S.S. Saratoga off Battery, New York Harbor, 15 July 1879. On the morning of this date, Robert Lee Robey, apprentice, fell overboard from the after part of the ship into the tide which was running strong ebb at the time and, not being an expert swimmer, was in danger of drowning. Instantly springing over the rail after him, Buchanan never hesitated for an instant to remove even a portion of his clothing. Both men were picked up by the ship's boat following this act of heroism.

Sources & record notes

General Order comparison: pending. Current-profile review does not mean that the underlying original order has been examined.

  1. David M. Buchanan — current Society profile ↗Congressional Medal of Honor Society · Checked 2026-08-30

    current identity, service, action metadata, and citation comparison

Transcription, metadata & provenance notes
Award ID
MOH-AW-002231
Transcription status
Legacy full text · current reference profile matched
Last source check
2026-08-30
Recorded order reference (not verified against the original)
246
Accredited to
Pennsylvania
Archive transcription SHA-256
92fe4fae8d7e621c6ea5ffc8fe6607b39ee83e2e6838f1eaa841b599e541fb39

Legacy transcription retained without substantive editing; rendered current reference profile variants documented in the Phase 10 evidence snapshot.

The inherited rank-1 Society candidate was confirmed by substantive comparison of identity, service, rank, unit or command, action context, and citation; candidate rank or successful rendering alone was not treated as verification. The controlled canonical unit or command is U.S.S. Saratoga; the inherited wording Not documented remains preserved as a separately attributed variant. The current authoritative evidence controls the action date as 1879-07-15 and classifies the action under Interim 1871 - 1899; the inherited unnormalized date and conflict values remain preserved in the audit record. The controlled historical action place is off The Battery, New York Harbor, New York, USA; the complete inherited geocoder value New York Avenue, New Jersey, USA remains preserved in the audit evidence. The inherited full citation remains canonical and checksum-protected; current rendered wording is preserved separately where transcribed. No underlying General Order was examined, so the exact-order gate remains pending and no General Order verification is claimed.

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