Background
Buffum was born on July 7, 1828 in Salem, Massachusetts and enlisted into the 21st Ohio Infantry at Gilead, Ohio on September 2, 1861.
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 honored with the award on 25 March 1863. 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 12th, 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 New York