Mary Edwards Walker

Mary Edwards Walker (November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919), commonly referred to as Dr. Mary Walker, was an American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, and surgeon.^[1] She is the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.^[2]

In 1855, she earned her medical degree at Syracuse Medical College in New York,^[3] married and started a medical practice. She attempted to join the Union Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War and was denied. She served as a surgeon at a temporary hospital in Washington, D.C. before being hired by Union Forces and assigned to Army of the Cumberland and later the 52nd Ohio Infantry, becoming the first female surgeon in the US Army.^[4][5] She was captured by Confederate forces^[3] after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, Virginia until released in a prisoner exchange.

After the war, she was approved for the Medal of Honor, for her efforts to treat the wounded in battle and across enemy lines during the Civil War. Notably, the award was not expressly given for gallantry in action at that time, and in fact was the only military decoration during the Civil War. Walker is the only woman to receive the medal and one of only eight civilians to receive it. Her name was deleted from the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917 (along with over 900 other recipients); however, it was restored in 1977.^[3] After the war, she was a writer and lecturer supporting the women's suffrage movement until her death in 1919.

Early life and education

Mary Edwards Walker was born in the

She married a fellow medical school student, Albert Miller, on November 16, 1855, shortly before she turned 23.[6] Walker 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.^[6] They set up a joint practice in Rome, New York.^[8] The practice did not flourish, as female physicians were generally not trusted or respected at that time.^[9] They later divorced, on account of Miller's infidelity.^[10]

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.

American Civil War

Walker volunteered at the outbreak of American Civil War as a surgeon – first for the Army, but was rejected because she was a woman (despite having kept a private practice for many years). 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.^[3] During this period, she served at the First Battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861, 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.^[11] 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.^[12] Walker was the first female surgeon of the Union army.^[11] She wore men's clothing during her work, claiming it to be easier for high demands of her work.^[11]

In September 1862, Walker wrote to the War Department requesting employment as a spy, but her proposal was declined.

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.^[15] While she was imprisoned, she refused to wear the clothes provided her, said to be more "becoming of her sex". Walker was exchanged for a Confederate surgeon from Tennessee on August 12, 1864.^[4]

She went on to serve as supervisor of a female prison in Louisville, Kentucky, and as the head of an orphanage in Tennessee.^[14]

Later career

After the war, Walker was awarded a disability pension for partial

Walker was a member of the Central Woman's Suffrage Bureau in Washington, DC and solicited funds to endow a chair for a female professor at Howard University medical school.^[4] She attempted to register to vote in 1871, but was turned away. The initial stance of the movement, following her lead, was to claim that women already had the right to vote, and Congress needed only to enact enabling legislation. After a number of fruitless years advocating this position, the movement promoted the adoption of a constitutional amendment. This was diametrically opposed to her position, and she fell out of favor with the movement. She continued to attend suffrage conventions and distribute her own literature, but was virtually ignored by the rest of the movement. Her penchant for wearing masculine clothing, including a top hat, only exacerbated the situation.^{[clarification needed][14]} She received a more favorable reception in England than in the United States.^[19]

In 1907, Walker published "Crowning Constitutional Argument", in which she argued that some States, as well as the federal Constitution, had already granted women the right to vote. She testified on women's suffrage before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1912 and 1914.

After a long illness, Walker died at home on February 21, 1919, at the age of eighty-six.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[14]

Dress reform

Inspired by her parents' novel standard of dressing for health purposes, Walker was infamous for contesting traditional female wardrobe, a campaign then known as

In 1870, Walker was arrested in New Orleans^[5] and mocked by men because she was dressed as a man. The arresting officer twisted her arm and asked her if she had ever been in a relationship with a man.^[5] Walker was released from custody when she was recognized at Police Court.^[5]

Honors and awards

Medal of Honor

After the war, Walker sought a retroactive brevet or commission to validate her service. President Andrew Johnson directed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to study the legality of the issue, and he solicited an opinion from the Army's Judge Advocate General, who determined that there was no precedent for commissioning a female, but that a "commendatory acknowledgment" could be issued in lieu of the commission. This led Johnson to personally award the Medal of Honor as an alternative. Thus, Walker was not formally recommended for the Medal of Honor, and this unusual process may also explain why authorities overlooked her ineligibility, ironically on the grounds of lacking a commission.^[23]

In 1916, the

The Army had published no regulations until 1897, and the law had very few requirements, meaning that recipients could earn a medal for virtually any reason, resulting in nearly 900 awards for non-combat enlistment extensions.

The Army's Medal of Honor Board deliberated from 1916 to 1917, and struck 911 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll, including those of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. Both were considered ineligible for the Army Medal of Honor because 1862, 1863, and 1904 laws strictly required recipients to be officers or enlisted service members. In Walker's case, she was a civilian contract surgeon, not a commissioned officer.

Nevertheless, the Medal of Honor Board perhaps discriminated against Walker because it declined to revoke the Medal of at least two other contract surgeons who were likewise ineligible. One of these, Major General Leonard Wood, was a former Army Chief of Staff who was a civilian contract surgeon of the same status as Walker when he was recommended for the award. All of this was known to the Medal of Honor Board, as board president General Nelson Miles had twice recommended Wood for the medal, and knew that he was ineligible.

The dis-enrolled recipients were not ordered to return their medals per a recommendation from the Army Judge Advocate General, who noted that Congress did not grant the Army the jurisdiction to enforce this provision of the statute, rendering both the repossession and criminal penalties inoperative.^[24]

Although several sources attribute President Jimmy Carter with restoring Walker's medal posthumously in 1977, this is probably incorrect. The action was taken well below the Secretary of the Army, at the level of the Army's Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, which was acting on a recommendation from the Board for Correction of Military Records. In fact, both the Ford and Carter Administrations opposed the restoration; the Carter White House reacted with confusion to the announcement of the Board's decision.^[25]

A recent historical work documented that the Board for Correction probably exceeded its authority in making a unilateral restoration of the medal, since the Board is merely a delegation arm of the authority of the Secretary of the Army, and thus cannot contradict a standing law. Therefore, the Board's decision was controversial because its mandate was to only correct errors or injustices within its authority, not act against the authority of public law.

This very point was illustrated by the awarding of Garlin Conner's Medal of Honor in early 2018, which also originated from the Board for Correction, but instead went through the President and required a statutory waiver from Congress—seen to be a requirement because the Board lacked the authority to contravene a public law and the associated statutes of limitations.^[26]

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.^[4]

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, Tennessee, following Battle of Chickamauga, September 1863; Prisoner of War, April 10, 1864 – August 12, 1864, Richmond, Virginia; Battle of Atlanta, September 1864. Entered service at: Louisville, Kentucky. Born: 26 November 1832, Oswego County, New York.

Citation:

The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Assistant Surgeon - Civilian Mary Edwards Walker, United States Civilian, for extraordinary heroism as a Contract Surgeon to the Union Forces. 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, Kentucky, 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. Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865. /s/ Andrew Johnson, President.^[27]

National Women's Hall of Fame

Walker was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2000.

In popular culture

Mary Walker was used as a character in the comic album Les Tuniques Bleues 54, entitled Miss Walker. She is portrayed here in a comical manner as a militant feminist.

Legacy

During

The medical facilities at SUNY Oswego are named in her honor (Mary Walker Health Center). 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.^[31]

The

The Mary Walker Clinic at Fort Irwin National Training Center in California is named in honor of Walker.^[33]

The Mary E. Walker House is a thirty-bed transitional residence run by the Philadelphia Veterans Multi-Service & Education Center for homeless women veterans.^[34][35]

In May 2012, a 900-pound bronze statue honoring Walker was unveiled in front of the Oswego, New York Town Hall.^[36]

In 2019, Walker was included in

Walker will be an honoree on an American Women quarter in 2024.^[40] The design depicts Walker holding her pocket surgical kit with the Medal of Honor and a surgeon's pin on her uniform.^[41]

Works

• Mary Edwards Walker; United States. Congress. House. Committee on the Judiciary, Edward Thomas Taylor, Jane Addams (1912). Woman suffrage, No.1: hearings before the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, Sixty-second Congress, second session, statement of Dr. Mary E. Walker. February 14, 1912. Government Printing Office. Retrieved February 11, 2010. Mary Edwards Walker.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Walker, Mary Edwards (1871). Hit: Essays on Women's Rights. The American News Company. Retrieved November 29, 2022. Reissued in paperback with a new introduction in 2003.^[22]
• Mary Edwards Walker (1878). Unmasked, or the Science of Immorality, To Gentlemen by a Woman Physician and Surgeon.

Works about her

• Negley, Keith. Mary Wears What She Wants, January 15, 2019
• DiMeo, Nate. Mary Walker Would Wear What She Wanted The Memory Palace Podcast Episode 76 Archived 2017-09-20 at the Wayback Machine, October 19, 2015. (Podcast detailing Mary Walker, her early life and accomplishments.)
• Gall-Clayton, Nancy. I'm Wearing My Own Clothes! (Full-length play commissioned and produced by Looking for Lilith Theatre Company, July 2017. I’m Wearing My Own Clothes!)
• Kaminski, Theresa. Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Women's Rights. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2020, ISBN 978-1-4930-3609-7.
• Lambil, Willy & Cauvin, Raoul. Miss Walker , Dupuis 2010, is a Belgian comic book in the "Bluecoats"-series (Les Tuniques Bleues). The comic album portrays Mary Walker in a caricatural way as a combative feminist during the civil war.

See also

• Mollie Bean
• Mary Ann Bickerdyke
• Malinda Blalock
• Albert Cashier
• Sarah Emma Edmonds
• Sarah Taylor (soldier)
• Loreta Janeta Velazquez
• Laura J. Williams

References