Dr. Mary Edwards Walker died #OTD in 1919 in Oswego, NY. She earned a medical degree at @SyracuseU in 1855 and volunteered for service as a surgeon on the Union Army at the outbreak of the #CivilWar. In that role, she became the only woman ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor. 
A strong believer in women's rights and abolition, she refused the @USArmy's offer that she could serve only as a nurse, and instead chose to work as an unpaid surgeon until the War Department finally employed her, in Sept 1863, as a Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon.
Assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, and briefly as regimental surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, she was with the army in the aftermath of the Battle of @ChickamaugaNPS.
In her new role, she regularly was exposed to enemy fire and crossed through the lines to treat the wounded from both armies. She was briefly taken as a prisoner of war before being exchanged in late 1864. Her Medal of Honor was approved in November 1865.
She and 900 others were stripped of the Medal in 1917 during a review of prior recipients, but it was reinstated in 1977, and she remains the only woman recipient. After the war, she enjoyed a long career in medicine and as a women's rights advocate. @MohMuseum
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