Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Edwards Walker
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker wearing her Medal of Honor
Born	November 26 1832(1832-11-26) Oswego, New York
Died	February 21 1919 (aged 86)
Nationality	American
Occupation	Doctor
Employer	United States Army
Known for	Receiving the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War 1st Female U.S. Army Surgeon Feminism Prohibitionist Abolitionist
Spouse(s)	Albert Miller

Mary Edwards Walker (November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919) was an American who was pioneer in the areas of Feminism, Abolitionism, prohibition and medicine. As one of the first female doctors in the United States she served in the American Civil War as a surgeon, became a prisoner of war and was the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.

One of the first women in the country to be awarded a medical degree, she served as the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army while serving with the Fifty-second Ohio Infantry. She was cited for valor in going behind enemy lines to attend to the sick and wounded. She was a courageous opponent of what she considered rampant, unnecessary amputation during the Civil War.

After the war she published HIT, an enigmatically titled book in which she advanced her radical ideas on topics from love, marriage, dress reform, women's suffrage and religion.

Early life and education

Mary Walker was born in Oswego, New York, in 1832, the daughter of Alvah (father) and Vesta (mother) Walker. She was the youngest of five daughters and had one younger brother. Walker worked on her family farm.

Her father studied medicine as a hobby and had hios own ideas about personal health. He believed most women's clothing of the early nineteenth-century was detrimental to their health and would not let his daughters wear corsets or other tight fitting clothes. These ideas of her father would be the basis of her strong belief that women’s dress needed to be reformed.

Her father's interest in medicine also caused Walker to dream of being a doctor as she read the many medical texts he owned.

Her elementary education consisted of going to the local school where her mother taught. As a young woman, she taught at the school to earn enough money to pay her way through Syracuse Medical College, where she graduated in 1855 as the only woman in her class. She married a fellow medical school student, Albert Miller, and 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.

Civil war

At the beginning of the American Civil War, she volunteered for the Union Army as a civilian. At first, she was only allowed to practice as a nurse, as the Army had no female surgeons. During this period, she served at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas), July 21, 1861 and at the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C. She also worked as an unpaid field surgeon near the Union front lines, including the Battle of Fredericksburg and in Chattanooga after the Battle of Chickamauga. Finally, she was awarded a commission as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian)" by the Army of the Cumberland in September, 1863, becoming the first-ever female U.S. Army Surgeon.

Walker was later appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry. During this service, she frequently crossed battle lines, treating civilians. On April 10, 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops and arrested as a spy. She was sent to Richmond and remained there until August 12, 1864 when she was released as part of a prisoner exchange. She went on to serve during the Battle of Atlanta and later as supervisor of a female prison in Louisville, Kentucky, and head of an orphanage in Tennessee.

Late career

After the war, she became a writer and lecturer, supporting such issues as health care, temperance, women's rights, and dress reform for women. She wrote two books that discussed womens rights and dress. She participated for several years with other leaders in the Women's Suffrage Movement, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The initial stance of the movement, taking Dr. Walker's lead, was to say that women already had the right to vote, and Congress need only enact enabling legislation. After a number of fruitless years working at this, the movement took the new tack of working for a Constitutional amendment. This was diametrically opposed to Mary Walker's position, and she fell out of favor with the movement. She continued to attend conventions of the suffrage movement and distribute her own brand of literature, but was virtually ignored by the rest of the movement. Her penchant for wearing male-style clothing, including a top hat, only exacerbated the situation.

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.

Medal of Honor

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 present her the medal, specifically for her services at the First Battle of Bull Run (Manassas).

In 1917, the U.S. Congress, after revising the standards for award of the medal so that it could only be given to those who had been involved in "actual combat with an enemy," revoked more than 900 previously-awarded medals, including that of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Although ordered to return the medal, she refused to do so and continued to wear it until her death.

President Jimmy Carter restored her medal posthumously in 1977.

Attribution and citation

Rank and organization: Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian), U. S. Army. Places and dates: Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861; Patent Office Hospital, Washington, D.C., October 1861; Chattanooga, Tenn., following Battle of Chickomauga, September 1863; Prisoner of War, April 10, 1864-August 12, 1864, Richmond, Va.; Battle of Atlanta, September 1864. Entered service at: Louisville, Ky. Born: 26 November 1832, Oswego County, N.Y.

Citation:

Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, "has rendered valuable service to the Government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways," and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, Ky., upon the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United States, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has also endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a Southern prison while acting as contract surgeon; and Whereas by reason of her not being a commissioned officer in the military service, a brevet or honorary rank cannot, under existing laws, be conferred upon her; and Whereas in the opinion of the President an honorable recognition of her services and sufferings should be made:

It is ordered, That a testimonial thereof shall be hereby made and given to the said Dr. Mary E. Walker, and that the usual medal of honor for meritorious services be given her.

Personal views

Feminism

For Walker women’s dress reform was the most important issue of the women's rights movement, a movement she was first exposed to on her parents’ farm in Oswego, New York. She was sixteen when Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton organized the first women’s rights convention in nearby Seneca Falls, New York and although she did not attend the convention she read newspaper reports of it daily. Years later Walker worked for dress reform and suffrage with several of the women who attended the convention including Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone.

Walker believed traditional female attire was detrimental to women's health. She believed the weight of women’s clothing and the length of the skirts affected a woman's mental health and that freeing a woman from such clothing would benefit her mentally. Walker's devotion to dress reform as well as her profession represented a threat to the conventions of the period because pants and medicine traditionally belonged to men.

Marriage

Mary Walker and Albert Miller’s wedding ceremony in 1855 was a non-conventional affair in which the bride wore pants. The couple was married by a Unitarian minister because Walker refused to include the “to obey” portion of the vows; and she refused to give up her maiden name.

The Walker and Miller marriage did not last due to rumored infidelity on Miller's part. For a woman who later wrote that "true conjugal companionship is the greatest blessing . . . to know that there is supreme interest in one individual . . ." infidelity was unforgivable. Mary Walker removed Albert Miller from her life and dissolved their medical practice though the divorce was not final until 1869.

Legacy

Walker, ca 1870. She often wore men's clothes and was arrested for impersonating a man several times.

In World War II, a Liberty ship, the SS Mary Walker, was named for her.

In 1982, the U.S. Postal Service issued at 20 cent stamp in her honor.

The medical facilities at SUNY Oswego are named in her honor. On the same grounds a plaque explains her importance in the Oswego community.

There is a United States Army Reserve center named for her in Walker, Michigan.

See also

Mary Edwards Walker Portal

• List of Medal of Honor recipients
• List of Medal of Honor recipients: Civil War M-Z
• Sarah Taylor (soldier)
• Malinda Blalock
• Albert Cashier
• Sarah Emma Edmundson
• Loreta Janeta Velazquez
• Laura J. Williams
• Mollie Bean

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Joinson, Carla. 2007. Civil War Doctor: The Story of Mary Walker. Social critics and reformers. Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds Pub. ISBN 9781599350288
• Snyder, Charles McCool. 1974. Dr. Mary Walker: The Little Lady in Pants. Women in America: from colonial times to the 20th century. New York: Arno Press. ISBN 0405061226
• Walker, Dale L. 2005. Mary Edwards Walker: Above and Beyond. New York: Forge. ISBN 9780765310651
• Walker, Mary Edwards. 2003. Hit: Essays on Women's Rights. Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books. ISBN 1591020980

External links

• Mary Edwards Walker: Civil War Doctor Northnet.org.
• National Library of Medicine, Dr Mary Edwards Walker Biography Nlm.nih.gov.
• Mary Edwards Walker (1832-1919) Americancivilwar.com.
• Mary Edwards Walker Lkwdpl.org.
• Mary Edwards Walker Papers Library.syr.edu.
• Six Military Women And Six U.S. Wars Washingtonpost.com.
• Gutsy Women Gutsywomen.blogspot.com.
• Female Civil War Doctor and Congressional Medal of Honor Winner: Dr. Mary Edwards Walker Associatedcontent.com.
• Mary Edwards Walker Findagrave.com.

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