Dr. Mary Walker always stood out in a crowd. She was born 26 November 1832 in Oswego Town near Oswego, NY. As a child, she was distinguished for her strength of mind and her decision of character. She grew up an independent young woman. She always had an inclination to be useful in the world. A woman of great energy, in her early years she wore “bloomers,” the pantaloon-style garb of the radical feminists of the age. When she graduated, the only female in her class, from Syracuse Medical College in 1855, she became one of the few women physicians in the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 Dr. Walker, then twenty-nine, journeyed to Washington and applied for an appointment as an Army surgeon, much to the shock of the Medical Department, which rejected her with considerable verbosity. Not one to be discouraged, she stayed in Washington, serving as an unpaid volunteer in various camps and, when the patent office was converted into a hospital, she served as assistant surgeon and worked without pay. During that time, she was instrumental in establishing an organization which aided needy women who came to Washington to visit wounded relatives. Dr. Walker met with considerable abuse over her persistent demands to be made a surgeon, but also earned considerable respect for her many good works. Meanwhile she abandoned bloomers and adopted a modified version of male attire, with a calf-length skirt worn over trousers, keeping her hair relatively long and curled so that anyone could know that she was a woman. In November 1862 Walker presented herself at the Virginia headquarters of MG Ambrose Burnside and was taken on as a field surgeon, although still on a volunteer basis. She treated the wounded at Warrenton and in Fredericksburg in December 1862; almost a year later she was in Chattanooga tending the casualties of the battle of Chickamauga. After the battle she again requested a commission as an Army doctor. In September 1863 MG George H. Thomas appointed her as an assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland, and she was assigned to the 52d Ohio Regiment, near Chattanooga, TN, a position in which she served well, wearing a somewhat modified version of the standard surgeon’s uniform. Many stories were told of her bravery under fire. However, she served in this capacity for but a short time. In April 1864 she was captured by Confederate troops, having remained behind to tend wounded upon a Union retirement. Charged with being a spy and arrested, her male attire constituting the principal evidence against her, Dr. Walker spent four months in various prisons, subject to much abuse for her “unladylike” occupation and attire, until she was exchanged for a Confederate surgeon on 12 August 1864. Years later she took great pride in this “man for man” exchange. In October 1864 Walker was granted a contract by the Medical Department as an acting assistant surgeon. Despite her repeated requests for battlefield duty, she was not again sent into the field. She spent the rest of the war as superintendent at a Louisville, KY, female prison hospital and a Clarksville, TN, orphanage. Released from government contract at the end of the war, Walker lobbied for a brevet promotion to major for her services. Secretary of War Stanton would not grant the request. President Andrew Johnson asked him if there was some other way to recognize her service. A Medal of Honor was prepared for Walker and presented to her in January 1866; she would wear it every day for the rest of her life. After the war Dr. Walker remained active in the women’s rights movement, and was a crusader against immorality, alcohol and tobacco and for clothing and election reform. Among her more unusual positions was that there was no need for a women’s suffrage act, as women already had the vote as American citizens. Her taste in clothes caused frequent arrests on such charges as “impersonating a man.” At one trial she asserted her right “to dress as I please in free America on whose tented fields I have served for four years in the cause of human freedom.” The judge dismissed the case and ordered the police never to arrest Walker on the charge again. She left the courtroom to hearty applause. In 1916 Congress revised the Medal of Honor standards to include only “actual combat with an enemy.” Several months later, in 1917, the Board of Medal Awards, after reviewing the merits of the awardees of the Civil War awards, ruled Dr. Walker’s Medal, as well as those of 910 other recipients, as unwarranted and it was revoked. She died on 21 February 1919, at the age of eighty-six. But Mary Walker was not forgotten. Nearly sixty years after her death, at the urging of a descendant, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records reviewed the case. On 19 June 1977, Army Secretary Clifford L. Alexander approved the recommendation by the Army Board for Correction of Military Records, to restore the Medal of Honor to her. Dr. Mary E. Walker remains on record as the sole female recipient of the Medal of Honor.
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 Chickamauga, 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
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