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Pocket Surgical Kit:
Dr. Mary E. Walker was the first and only woman to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. Initially rejected by the Union Army, she volunteered in field hospitals and became the first woman to receive a contract as an assistant surgeon in October 1864. Walker used this kit while attending sick and wounded soldiers.
Mary Edwards Walker
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Edwards Walker (November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919) was an American feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, alleged spy, prisoner of war and surgeon. She is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor.
Prior to the American Civil War she earned her medical degree, married and started a medical practice. The practice didn't do well and she volunteered with the Union Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War and served as a female surgeon. She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, Virginia until released in a prisoner exchange.
After the war she was approved for the United States military's highest decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor, for her efforts during the war. She is the only woman to receive the medal and one of only eight civilians to receive it. Her medal was later rescinded based on an Army determination and then restored in 1977. After the war she was a writer and lecturer supporting the women's suffrage movement until her death in 1919. ...
Medal of Honor citation
After the war, Walker was recommended for the Medal of Honor by Generals William Tecumseh Sherman and George Henry Thomas. On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill to present her the medal.
In 1917, the U.S. Congress, created a pension act for Medal of Honor recipients and in doing so created separate Army and Navy Medal of Honor Rolls. Only the Army decided to review eligibility for inclusion on the Army Medal of Honor Roll. The 1917 Medal of Honor Board never rescinded any medals in 1917 but instead deleted 911 names from the Army Medal of Honor Roll including that of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker and William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody. None of the 911 recipients were ordered to return their medals although on the question of whether the recipients could continue to wear their medals the Judge Advocate General advised the Medal of Honor Board that there was no obligation on the Army to police the matter. Walker continued to wear her medal until her death.
President Jimmy Carter restored her medal posthumously in 1977. ...
Other Honors:
In World War II, a Liberty ship, the SS Mary Walker, was named for her.
In 1982, the U.S. Postal Service issued a 20 cent stamp in her honor.
The medical facilities at SUNY Oswego are named in her honor (Mary Walker Health Center). On the same grounds a plaque explains her importance in the Oswego community.
There is a United States Army Reserve center named for her in Walker, Michigan.
The Whitman-Walker Clinic in Washington, D.C. is named in honor of Dr. Walker and the poet Walt Whitman who was a nurse in D.C. during the Civil War.
The Mary Walker Clinic at the National Training Center and Fort Irwin, California is named in honor of Dr. Walker. |