WOMAN Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

Mary Edwards Walker, MD 

November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919

Mary Edwards Walker was an American feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, alleged spy, prisoner of war, surgeon, and the only woman ever to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

In 1855, she graduated from Syracuse Medical College as a medical doctor, the only woman in her class. 

At the beginning of the Civil War, she volunteered for the Union Army as a civilian. At first, she was restricted to practicing as a nurse, as the Army had no female surgeons. She was later awarded a commission as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon" by the Army of the Cumberland in September 1863. Thus she became the first female U.S. Army Surgeon.

During her service, she frequently crossed battle lines in order to treat civilians. On April 10, 1864. she was captured by Confederate troops and arrested as a spy. She was sent to Richmond and remained there until August 12, 1864, when she was released as part of a prisoner exchange. 

She later served during the Battle of Atlanta and later as supervisor of a female prison in Louisville, KY, and head of an orphanage in TN.

Returning to civilian life, she wrote and lectured on such issues as health care, temperance, women's rights and dress reform for women. She participated for several years with other leaders in the Women's Suffrage Movement, including Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

After the war, Walker was recommended for the Medal of Honor by General William Tecumseh Sherman. On 11 Nov, 1865, President Johnson signed a bill to present her the medal for services at the First Battle of Bull Run.

In 1917, the U.S. Congress, revised the standards for award of the medal so that it could only be given to those who had been involved in "actual combat with an enemy". This action revoked many previously awarded medals, including that of Dr. Walker. 

Although ordered to return the medal, she refused to do so and continued to wear it until her death – and beyond; she wore her medal to her grave. President Jimmy Carter restored her medal posthumously in 1977

In two weeks, read about our own cemetery doctor, Mary Blackmar Bruson, MD and her exploits during the Civil War.