Mary Edwards Walker, 1st Woman to Receive US Medal of Honor, Mini Biography
Name: Mary Edwards Walker
Birth Date: November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919
Job Functions: Medical Doctor, Reformer, Suffragist
Fields: Medicine, Activism
Known For: The only woman who has received the US Medal of Honor
Introduction
Born on November 26, 1832 in Oswego, N.Y. Her father, Alva Walker was a farmer, teacher and self-taught physician. Her parents operated a school on their 33-acre farm near Oswego, which she and her siblings attended. They were very liberal-minded and believed that all their children, five girls and one boy should have access to the same education, and urged them to seek professional careers. During the 1820s and 1830s there was a reform movement advocating for the abolition of slavery and gender equality.
Mary Edwards Walker was a woman ahead of her time, and the first and only woman to receive the US Medal of Honor. Despite receiving two medical degrees from Syracuse Medical College in 1855, and Hygeia Therapeutic College in 1862, when she arrived as a volunteer surgeon at the 52nd Ohio Infantry regiment of the Union Army, they questioned her credentials. A Dr. Perin called for a review of her qualifications. The army turned her down.
She didn’t allow their snub to dampen her spirits, instead, in October 1862, Mary Edwards Walker traveled independently to the Army of the Potomac's encampment in Warrenton, Virginia, and arrived there in the middle of typhoid epidemic. The army allowed her treat the sick and wounded. Her next stop was Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she cared for Union casualties. Her dogged persistence and determination to assist during the war allowed her to build her reputation and demonstrate her medical expertise. The army decided to use Mary Edwards Walker’s medical skills in an unofficial capacity.
Mary Edwards Walker’s Steps to Success
Being influenced by her liberal-minded parents, Mary Edwards Walker embraced the reform movement. In a man’s world in the medical field, Mary Edwards Walker knew that to succeed, she had to get the proper education. Prior to receiving her second medical degree, she married Albert Miller, a physician, and they established a medical practice. However, people were not ready for a female doctor so the practice failed, and so did the marriage. Edwards’ husband was unfaithful, and because of the laws in New York, it took a long time for her to finally secure her divorce.
Mary Edwards Walker secured a second medical degree. She was still not accepted, but she did what was necessary to demonstrate that her medical training and expertise were sound. Working consistently, in early 1864, she finally received an appointment as a civilian contract surgeon to the 52nd Ohio Volunteers. A Medical Board tested her skills and failed her, but it had to do with her gender and not her medical credentials. Despite the Board’s negative recommendation, her superiors allowed her to stay in her new position.
A few months after she assumed her new position, the Confederates captured and held Edwards as a Prisoner of War for four months at Castle Thunder, near Richmond, Virginia. On August 12, 1864 she obtained her freedom in a prisoner exchange. However, while she was in prison she somehow injured her eye which ultimately prevented her from practicing medicine. In January 1866, President Andrew Johnson awarded Mary Edwards Walker the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is worth noting that in 1916, a special Medal of Honor Commission revoked her medal along with 900 others, but it was restored posthumously in 1977.
Besides being known as the first and only woman to receive the US Medal of Honor, Edwards campaigned tirelessly for dress reform and women’s rights. She believed that women’s dress – long dresses, skirts and corsets – posed a challenge because they were unhealthy and prevent women from working. She wore comfortable attire that looked more like men’s clothing.
In 1866, Edwards worked with Susan B. Anthony (My profile) and Lucy Stone to organize the Women’s Suffrage Association for Ohio. In several instances, Edwards tried to vote and was rebuffed – to her, women should have the right to vote because the US Constitution did not mention gender, it stated “We the People”. She traveled the lecture circuit across the US and spent six months in the UK lecturing there. She published two books, Hit: Essays on Women's Rights (Classics in Women's Studies)
in 1869, which was about her views on divorce, and Unmasked, or The Science of Immorality: To gentlemen
where she expressed her views on men’s infidelity.
Although Mary Edwards Walker died on February 21, 1919 before women got the right to vote, she saw the fruits of her labor in her campaign for dress reform. Please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Liked this post? Share it and subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
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Sources: Works Cited/Referenced
American History
Contemporary Heroes and Heroines
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Merriam Webster's Biographical Dictionary
Rebellious Dr. Mary Walker
Women in World History – A Biographical Encyclopedia