Did You Know a Woman Received the Medal of Honor?

by Chuck Yarling 

Let me introduce you to Dr. Mary Walker, who was known historically as an “American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, and surgeon” (Harness, Cheryl , 2013). She was born on November 26, 1832 in Oswego, New York. 

Her parents raised her and her six siblings as a “freethinker,” which the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines as “a person who thinks freely or independently; one who forms opinions on the basis of reason independently of authority.” For example, she would wear shirts and pants while working on the farm for comfortability. This non-traditional, nonconformist lifestyle followed her throughout her life as you will soon see. 

After her non-adult education at the Falley Seminary, she attended Syracuse Medical College and graduated with her doctoral degree in 1855. Then she started her own private practice until the Civil War broke out in 1861. She first attempted to join the army as a surgeon but the rules at the time prohibited her from joining because she was a woman. But after not being accepted by the military, she eventually volunteered as an unpaid surgeon at U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.

In 1862, Dr. Walker moved to Virginia where she began treating wounded soldiers at hospitals around the state. And in the next year, once her medical credentials were finally received, she moved to Tennessee. It was here when she was finally able to accomplish her original idea of entering the military: she was appointed as a surgeon in the War Department. And that permitted her to become paid for her work. Her salary at that time turned out to be similar to what a captain was being paid at the time.

As the war continued, Walker decided to wear comfortable clothes that allowed her the flexibility of movement as she operated on patients. Specifically, she wore mixed clothes consisting of a dress and trouser combination that was known as a “bloomer costume.” She eventually began to wear men’s clothes. Her wearing men’s clothes resulted in her being periodically arrested for publicly portraying herself as a man. As such, she explained to her arresting official that the government had granted her permission to wear such clothes.

In 1864, Mary was captured by Southern forces and ended up as a prisoner of war for four months. She and several other Union doctors were soon exchanged for Confederate physicians. After leaving the southern forces, Walker became a medical director at a hospital in Kentucky to work with women prisoners. Shortly thereafter, Walker was transferred to a prison for women in Louisville, Kentucky. She was transferred to Clarksville, Tennessee, where she worked at an orphanage until the end of the Civil War on April 9, 1865.

After the war, Major Generals George H. Thomas and William T. Sherman recommended to President Andrew Johnson that Walker be recognized for her patriotism and service during the Civil War. Eventually, President Johnson signed an official document on November 11, 1865, awarding her the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Her citation from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society is here.

Rank: Contract Surgeon

Conflict/Era: U.S. Civil War

Military Service Branch: U.S. Army

Medal of Honor Action Date: 1861 – 1864

Medal of Honor Action Place: North Carolina, D.C., Tennessee, Georgia, USA

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. 

Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1866 Andrew Johnson,
President

Walker actually received her medal on January 1866.

About fifty years later, in June 1916, a group of military personnel began to question the accuracy of the recommendations of Medal of Honor recipients during the Civil War. Perhaps the question was raised because of the extremely large number of these medals that were presented during the war.

A review board of five U.S. Army generals was created “for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon past awards or issue of the Congressional Medal of Honor.” On February 5, 1917, the board decided that only military personnel could be awarded the Medal of Honor and rescinded 911 Medal of Honor recipients, including Mary Walker’s. She was incensed with the board’s findings and continued to wear her medal for the rest of her life.

Just two years later, Mary Walker died of natural causes on February 21, 1919, at the age of 86. She was buried in her hometown of Oswego, New York. The city erected a 900-pound statue of Mary Walker that now stands in front of the town hall.

More than fifty years later, through the lobbying efforts of a distant relative of Mary Walker, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records reviewed Walker’s case and recommended her award be restored. On June 10, 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed an order posthumously reinstating Dr. Mary Walker as the first and only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

________________________

This first appeared in The Havok Journal on November 19, 2024.

Chuck Yarling 

Spec 5, US Army

HQ Co., 26th Combat Engineering Bn.

Chu Lai, Vietnam (1969-1970)

As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.