Mary Edwards Walker was born November 26, 1832 on her family’s farm on Bunker Hill Road, Oswego County, NY. She had four older sisters—Aurora, Luna, Vesta and Cynthia—and one younger brother Alvah. Her liberal father, a country doctor, often indulged in reform movements of the time, a trait he passed on to his children, especially Mary. An early advocate for Women’s Rights, Mary was a particular proponent for dress reform, often opting to wear trousers over the impractical feminine attire of the day. Her dress reform cohorts included Amelia Bloomer and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
In 1850, Mary attended Falley Seminar in Fulton, New York before accepting a teaching position at a small school in Minetto, New York. In 1853, she entered Central Medical College in Syracuse, NY, a college with a unique philosophy of scholarly equality for men and women. In 1855, she graduated, thus becoming the second female medical doctor in the United States behind Elizabeth Blackwell. Her degree in hand, Mary headed west and opened a small medical practice in Columbus, OH, a town not yet ready for a female doctor. The practice failed within months.
The year 1856 saw the marriage of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker to Dr. Albert Miller; however, in keeping with her feminist views, she refused his last name. Shortly after the wedding, the two opened a practice in Rome, NY, a town just as primitive in its thinking as Columbus: the practice failed within a short time. In 1859, after just three years of marriage, Mary ordered her husband from their home, citing his infidelities. It took 10 years for a divorce to become final.
Growing restless while trying to find her place, 1861 brought her to Washington, DC where she relentlessly tried to obtain a commission in the Union Army as a surgeon. Her requests were denied. Regardless, she volunteered her service to the Patent Office Hospital that had been erected shortly after First Bull Run—the same hospital where Clara Barton began her dedicated service. Like Barton, Walker received no compensation at this point in time from the army. But unlike Barton, who dressed conservatively, Dr. Walker chose to wear masculine attire—a uniformed jacket with trousers beneath her skirt—to allow her to work in comfort. She also carried two pistols. Her attire caused many caustic comments to flow from the mouths of notorious women of Washington, women who refused to tolerate such scandalous behavior.
Dr. Walker was finally permitted to serve as a volunteer surgeon for the Army of the Cumberland at an army hospital in Chattanooga, TN after the September 19-20 Battle of Chickamauga. During this time, she frequently crossed enemy lines to tend to wounded and ailing Confederates, as well. There, she was able to obtain bits and pieces of information that proved useful to the Federals. Shortly thereafter, she finally received an appointment from General George Thomas—the first officer who began to see her value to the Union Army—as a replacement surgeon to the 52nd Ohio Infantry. She drew a mere $80 per month salary. Still continuing her treks across enemy lines to treat wounded Confederates, as well as civilians, she was eventually taken prisoner and sent to Richmond’s Libby Prison. During her confinement, she continued her duties by treating Union prisoners and Confederate guards. Even though she served her wounded enemy well, her imprisonment brought these harsh words from Confederate Captain BJ Semmes: “This morning we were all amused and disgusted too at the sight of a thing that nothing but the debased and the depraved Yankee nation could produce—a female doctor…She was dressed in full uniform of a Federal Surgeon, boots, hat and all, and wore a cloak…She was about 28 years old fair, but not good looking and of course had a tongue enough for a regiment of men. I was in hopes the General would have her dressed in homespun frock and bonnet and sent back to the Yankee lines, or put in a lunatic asylum…” After four months of imprisonment during the Atlanta Campaign, she was finally released in a prisoner exchange of 24 Union surgeons for 17 Confederate surgeons. She was greatly pleased she had been “traded man for man” for a Confederate officer. It served to validate her need for equality. She spent the remainder of the war practicing as a contract surgeon at a Louisville, Kentucky female prison and an orphan’s asylum in Tennessee.
After the Civil War, Generals William T Sherman and George Thomas recommended Dr. Walker for the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service—making her the only woman to ever receive the country’s highest military award. The Citation read:
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 a 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 herby 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, DC, this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865.—Andrew Johnson, President.
Still bright and determined after the war, Dr. Walker traveled throughout England and France, captivating audiences with her lectures on women’s rights, dress reform, and health and temperance issues. She returned to the United States and traveled extensively offering her same European lectures; however, she was not well-received in the U.S. In 1866, she was elected president of the National Dress Reform Association. She carried the title with honor and found pride in being arrested numerous times for wearing full male dress that included a bow tie and top hat. She later wrote HIT, a biography and commentary; then penned a second book entitled Unmasked, or the Science of Immortality. In 1871, she tried to vote in her home town, but was politely turned away. She spent the remainder of the 1870s lobbying in Washington, D.C., for the same causes she’d fought for most of her life.
The 1880s seemed to take more of a toll on her spirit. She sought federal employment and finally won a job as a clerk in the Department of the Interior. The job lasted a mere two years. With little funds remaining, Dr. Walker took to lecturing at museums throughout the Northeastern United States. Although she took her lectures seriously, most audiences viewed them as carnival sideshows.
In 1919, her Congressional Medal, along with 910 other Civil War recipients’ medals, was revoked in the Purge of 1917. In keeping with her spirit, dignity and decorum, she refused to return the medal and instead wore it proudly every day for the remainder of her life. Walker’s great niece relentlessly fought for the reinstatement of the medal and was triumphant when, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill reinstating Dr. Mary E. Walker’s Congressional Medal of Honor.
Dr. Mary Walker died near poverty in her home town of Oswego on February 21, 1919, a few short months before the 20th Amendment giving women the right to vote was ratified. She is buried in the Rural Cemetery on Cemetery Road, Oswego.
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, summed up Dr. Walker’s life: “She lived a life of determined unconventionality; being a bloomerite from her younger years, she preferred to dress in pants. Later on in life, still practicing medicine, she could be seen wearing men’s top hats and top coats as well as pants.”
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Kimberly Largent-Christopher, Editor
KJLWrite@aol.com
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