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Medal of Honor Recipient

John Hayden

U.S. Navy · Interim 1871 - 1899

MOH-RC-002388Source-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.

Medal imagery and historical designs →

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. Training Ship Saratoga

The Citation

Sources ↓
On board the U.S. Training Ship Saratoga. On the morning of 15 July 1879, while the Saratoga was anchored off the Battery, in New York Harbor, R. L. Robey, apprentice, fell overboard. As the tide was running strong ebb, the man, not being an expert swimmer, was in danger of drowning. David M. Buchanan, apprentice, instantly, without removing any of his clothing, jumped after him. Stripping himself, Hayden stood coolly watching the 2 in the water, and when he thought his services were required, made a dive from the rail and came up alongside them and rendered assistance until all 3 were picked up by a boat from the ship.

Sources & record notes

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

  1. John Hayden — 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-002399
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
Washington, D.C.
Archive transcription SHA-256
a6a73675a25dd1a41badfb1d4dae6b4f037faae99e5c3f6d1f4590dffbb4635d

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. Training Ship Saratoga; the current structured profile renders U.S. Training Ship Saratoga, and 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 current structured place off The Battery, New York Harbor, New York, USA and the complete inherited geocoder value New York Harbor, Brooklyn, NY, USA remain 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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