![\"dr](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/dr-mary-walker.jpg\")
\nDr. Mary Edwards Walker<\/p>\n
\nDr. Mary Edwards Walker<\/p>\n
In the interests of expanding our horizons here at TAH, Mason is going on a new tangent. Valor awards are unique in and of themselves, but he’s taking it to the next level. With his usual outstanding research and writing skills, he introduces us to the first such valor awardee, Dr. Mary Walker.<\/p>\n
Mason<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019d like to start a new series, one in which we explore some highly unusual or unique awards of high valor medals. The first case we\u2019ll look at is that of Mary Edwards Walker.<\/p>\n Many people probably don\u2019t know, but there has been one woman who received the Medal of Honor. That lady was Dr. Walker. She received the award for her services during the Civil War where she served as a contract surgeon.<\/p>\n Hailing from New York, Walker was an obstinate individual. She eschewed the normal styles of dress for women at the time, feeling they were too constrictive and inhibited free movement and circulation. She often wore male clothes (being arrested for it at one point later in life), but did give into some social pressures on the issue by wearing a skirt over men\u2019s trousers.<\/p>\n She was also an abolitionist, prohibitionist, and suffragette. When the Civil War broke out, Dr. Walker volunteered to serve as a surgeon, at the age of 29. She\u2019d been a medical doctor for more than five years, but women doctors at the time were not trusted.<\/p>\n The Union Army rejected her because she was a woman. Offered the job of nurse, the intransigent doctor refused and instead elected to serve as a civilian with the Army. This wasn\u2019t unheard of in that era. One will recall my previous discussion on General Leonard Wood, he was also a contract surgeon and received the Medal of Honor while in that status.<\/p>\n Even though working for the Army as a doctor, she was only initially allowed the duties of a nurse. After service at the First Battle of Bull Run she made her way to the front lines where she worked as an unpaid surgeon.<\/p>\n In September 1862 she unsuccessfully petitioned the War Department to make her a spy. In September 1863 she was appointed an \u201cContract Acting Assistant Surgeon (Civilian)\u201d with the Army of the Cumberland, becoming the first official female Army surgeon.<\/p>\n Walker was known for her bullheadedness in combat as much as in her personal dealings. She would frequently cross battle lines to treat wounded soldiers (from both sides) as well as civilians. It was on one such foray that she was captured as a spy by Confederate forces. She had just assisted a Confederate surgeon in performing an amputation, on the Confederate side of the battle line, on April 10, 1864.<\/p>\n Interred at Castle Thunder in Virginia for the next four months, she was returned to Union control after a prisoner exchange. Castle Thunder was the Confederate prison camp for spies, Union civilians, and those convicted of treason. It was a notoriously brutal place, as most Confederate prison camps were. Even in a brutal prison camp she refused to wear the clothing afforded her that was more \u201cbecoming of her sex\u201d.<\/p>\n After the war she was given a disability pension of $8.50 a month for injuries sustained while a prisoner. This works out to roughly $134 a month today. This pension was raised in 1899 to $20 a month ($622\/month today).<\/p>\n She became a writer and lecturer and testified twice before the House of Representatives on the topic of the women\u2019s suffrage movement. She died in 1919 at the age of 86 after long battling illness. She passed just a year before the 19th Amendment passed and gave women the right to vote.<\/p>\n The story of her actually being awarded the Medal of Honor is much more interesting. She lobbied after the war to validate her service with a retroactive commission. President Johnson directed the Edwin Stanton (the Secretary of War) to look into the matter. Stanton solicited the Army Judge Advocate General for a legal opinion. The JAG could find no precedent for commissioning a female and therefore recommended a \u201ccommendatory acknowledgement\u201d be issued instead.<\/p>\n Long time readers of my articles on the topic will remember that at the time of the Civil War and immediately after, the Medal of Honor was the Army\u2019s sole personal award for bravery. Therefore, receiving the legal opinion of the JAG, President Johnson awarded Dr. Walker the Medal of Honor. Walker considered her medal to have been awarded for her willingness to go into enemy territory to care for the wounded when many male doctors were unwilling on fear of being captured.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At the time there were no regulations on the award of the Medal of Honor, and during the Civil War, many medals were issued not for combat gallantry but for simply reenlisting. Walker, not being an enlisted or commissioned member of the Army would have likely been ineligible for the Medal of Honor absent the decision by the president. After receiving her medal, Walker was frequently seen wearing the honor on her jacket.<\/p>\n In 1916, Congress created a pension for Medal of Honor recipients. As part of this, the Army was directed (in a separate bill) to review eligibility of prior recipients and purge the Medal of Honor roll of undesirable awards. There were no Army regulations on the medal until 1897 and the law authorizing it had little eligibility criteria.<\/p>\n As a result of this review, 911 Army Medals of Honor were rescinded. Among these revoked awards was Walker. Interestingly, the Army lawyers determined they didn\u2019t have the authority to confiscate the medals, so recipients, including Dr. Walker, continued to possess and wear their awards. Walker\u2019s award was rescinded in 1917, along with that of William \u201cBuffalo Bill\u201d Cody\u2019s, as they were civilians (Cody was a scout at the time of his award). She continued to proudly wear the medal until her death two years later.<\/p>\n The story doesn\u2019t end there though. In the 70\u2019s, Congress revisited the issue once again. In 1977 the Army re-corrected the record on Mary Edwards Walker and reinstated her Medal of Honor. The awards of Buffalo Bill and four other civilian scouts had their Medals of Honor reinstated in 1989.<\/p>\n Walker remains the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor. With women serving in combat roles, it\u2019s only a matter of time before another joins her. It\u2019s not well known but several women have been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, and the Soldier\u2019s, Airman\u2019s, and Navy and Marine Corps Medals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Hand Salute. Ready, Two!![\"civil](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/civil-war-moh.jpg\")
\nCivil War Medal of Honor<\/p>\n
\nThanks again, Mason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"