The arresting officer twisted her arm, and asked if she had ever been in a relationship with a man (dressing outside of gendered norms at the time was seen as evidence of homosexuality). In 1870, while she was in New Orleans, she was arrested because she was dressed as a man. Her choice of profession and dress marked her for harassment and ridicule her whole life. Walker spent the remainder of her life advancing the cause of women's rights. She remains the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. The medal was stripped from her (and several others) by government action from 1916 to 1917. Based on the recommendation of Major Generals Sherman and Thomas, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill on November 11, 1865, to present Walker with the Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service. Walker was awarded a disability pension for muscular atrophy that she suffered while in prison in Castle Thunder.
During the remainder of the war, she served at the Louisville Women's Prison Hospital and at an orphan asylum in Clarksville, Tennessee.Īfter the war, Dr. After spending four months at the notorious Castle Thunder prison near Richmond, Virginia Dr. While imprisoned, she continued to refuse to wear traditionally feminine clothing. On one such foray in 1864, she was detained by Confederate troops and arrested for spying. While serving as an assistant surgeon with the 52nd Ohio Infantry, she routinely crossed the lines to treat civilians. Army surgeon following her commission as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian)" by the Army of the Cumberland. Throughout the War, she wore men's clothing, arguing that doing so made her job easier. In 1862, she worked as an unpaid field surgeon near the front lines at Fredericksburg and Chattanooga. She was denied a commission as a medical officer, but served anyway as an unpaid volunteer surgeon at the U.S. Walker traveled to Washington to join the Union army. She was suspended from the school for refusing to resign from the school's otherwise all-male debate team.Īt the onset of the Civil War, Dr. In 1860, she briefly attended Bowen Collegiate Institute in Hopkinton, Iowa. Her typical clothes - for which she was often mocked, punished, and treated as an oddity - were, in the 1860s, trousers with suspenders worn under a knee-length dress (later she would wear jackets and trousers almost exclusively). Walker was strongly opposed to traditional women's dress, arguing they were uncomfortable, inhibited mobility, and spread dust and dirt.
She refused to agree to "obey" Albert in her wedding vows, kept her last name, and wore a short skirt and trousers instead of a traditional wedding dress they later divorced. The practice failed, ostensibly because the public would not accept a female doctor. Following her graduation, she married her fellow medical student, Albert Miller, and they set up a joint practice in Rome, New York. Walker graduated with a doctor of medicine degree from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. She was a non-comformist throughout her life. Helping on the farm, Mary often wore trousers and shirts because they were more comfortable. "Free thinkers," they were raised to question everything. She grew up in Oswego, New York, raised by her progressive parents along with her six brothers and sisters. Mary Edwards Walker remains the only women ever to receive the Medal of Honor, which she was awarded for her service during the Civil War. An American feminist, suffragist, suspected spy, prisoner of war and surgeon, Dr.
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