Mary Edwards Walker, commonly referred to as Dr. Mary Walker, was an American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war and surgeon. She was the only woman to ever receive the Medal of Honor. 
Mary Edwards Walker was born in the Town of Oswego, New York, on November 26, 1832, the daughter of Alvah (father) and Vesta (mother) Walker. She was the youngest of seven children.
Alvah and Vesta raised both their son and their daughters in a progressive manner that was revolutionary for the time.
The Walker parents also demonstrated non-traditional gender roles to their children regarding sharing work around the farm: Vesta often participated in heavy labor while Alvah took part in general household chores.
Mary worked on her family farm as a child. She did not wear women's clothing during farm labor because she considered it too restricting. Her mother reinforced her views that corsets and tight lacings were unhealthy.
Photo: Farm workers in Washington State.
Photo: Farm workers in Washington State.
Her elementary education consisted of attendance at the local school that her parents had started. The Walkers were determined that their daughters be as well-educated as their son, so they founded the first free schoolhouse in Oswego in the late 1830s.
After finishing primary school, Mary and two of her older sisters attended Falley Seminary in Fulton, New York. Falley was not only an institution of higher learning, but a place that emphasized modern social reform in gender roles, education, and hygiene.
Its ideologies and practices further cemented Mary's determination to defy traditional feminine standards on a principle of injustice.
In her free time, she would pore over her father's medical texts on anatomy and physiology.
In her free time, she would pore over her father's medical texts on anatomy and physiology.
As a young woman, she taught at a school in Minetto, New York, eventually earning enough money to pay her way through Syracuse Medical College, where she graduated with honors as a medical doctor in 1855, the only woman in her class.
She married a fellow medical school student, Albert Miller, on November 16, 1855, shortly before she turned 23. Mary wore a short skirt with trousers underneath, refused to include "obey" in her vows, and retained her last name, all characteristic of her obstinate nonconformity.
They set up a joint practice in Rome, New York. The practice did not flourish, as female physicians were generally not trusted or respected at that time. They later divorced, on account of Miller's infidelity.
Walker briefly attended Bowen Collegiate Institute (later named Lenox College) in Hopkinton, Iowa, in 1860, until she was suspended for refusing to resign from the school's debating society, which until she joined had been all male.
Despite having kept a private practice for many years, Walker volunteered at the outbreak of American Civil War as a surgeon - first for the Army, but was rejected because she was a woman.
She was offered the role of a nurse but declined and chose to volunteer as a surgeon for the Union Army as a civilian. The U.S. Army had no female surgeons, and at first, she was allowed to practice only as a nurse.
During this period, she served at the First Battle of Bull Run, and at the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C. She worked as an unpaid field surgeon near the Union front lines, including at the Battle of Fredericksburg and in Chattanooga after the Battle of Chickamauga.
As a suffragist, she was happy to see women serving as soldiers, and alerted the press to the case of Frances Hook, in Ward 2 of the Chattanooga hospital, a woman who served in the Union forces disguised as a man.
Walker was the first female surgeon of the Union army. In September 1862, she wrote to the War Department requesting employment as a spy, but her proposal was declined.
In September 1863, she was employed as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian)" by the Army of the Cumberland, becoming the first female surgeon employed by the U.S. Army Surgeon.
Walker was later appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry. During her service, she frequently crossed battle lines and treated civilians.
On April 10, 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops, and arrested as a spy, just after she finished helping a Confederate doctor perform an amputation.
She was sent to Castle Thunder in Richmond, Virginia, and remained there until August 12, 1864, when she was released as part of a prisoner exchange. Walker was exchanged for a Confederate surgeon from Tennessee on August 12, 1864.
She went on to serve as supervisor of a female prison in Louisville, Kentucky, and as the head of an orphanage in Tennessee.
After the war, Walker was awarded a disability pension for partial muscular atrophy suffered while she was imprisoned by the enemy. She was given $8.50 a month, beginning June 13, 1865, but in 1899 that amount was raised to $20 per month.
She became a writer and lecturer, supporting such issues as health care, temperance, women's rights, and dress reform for women.
She was frequently arrested for wearing men's clothing and insisted on her right to wear clothing that she thought appropriate.
She was frequently arrested for wearing men's clothing and insisted on her right to wear clothing that she thought appropriate.
She wrote two books that discussed women's rights and dress. She replied to criticism of her attire: "I don't wear men's clothes, I wear my own clothes."
Walker was a member of the central woman's suffrage Bureau in Washington.
Walker was a member of the central woman's suffrage Bureau in Washington.
After a long illness, Mary Walker died at home on February 21, 1919, at the age of eighty-six.
She was buried at Rural Cemetery in Oswego, New York, in a plain funeral, with an American flag draped over her casket, and wearing a black suit instead of a dress.
She was buried at Rural Cemetery in Oswego, New York, in a plain funeral, with an American flag draped over her casket, and wearing a black suit instead of a dress.
After the war, Walker was recommended for the Medal of Honor by Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and George Henry Thomas. On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill to award her the medal.
In 1917, the U.S. Congress created a pension act for Medal of Honor recipients, and in doing so created separate Army and Navy Medal of Honor Rolls. Only the Army decided to review eligibility for inclusion on the Army Medal of Honor Roll.
The 1917 Medal of Honor Board deleted 911 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll, including those of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody.
The disenrolled recipients were ordered to return their medals, but Walker continued to wear hers until her death.
The disenrolled recipients were ordered to return their medals, but Walker continued to wear hers until her death.
President Jimmy Carter restored her medal posthumously in 1977. She is one of six people to regain the award.
Her death in 1919 came one year before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
Her death in 1919 came one year before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guaranteed women the right to vote.
During World War II, a Liberty ship, the SS Mary Walker, was named for her.
Walker felt that she had been awarded the Medal of Honor because she had gone into enemy territory to care for the suffering inhabitants, when no man had the courage to do so, for fear of being imprisoned.
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