In June of 1855, Mary graduated from Syracuse Medical College, the nation's first medical school and one that accepted women and men on an equal basis. She graduated at age 21 after three 13-week semesters of medical training.
In 1856 she married another physician, Albert Miller, wearing trousers and a man's coat and kept her own name. Together they set up a medical practice in Rome, New York, but the public was not ready to accept a woman physician and their practice floundered. They lived together almost four years before separating and moving on to individual practices; eventually divorcing nine years later.
When the war broke out, Mary went to Washington and tried to join the Union Army. She volunteered as an acting assistant surgeon when she was denied a medical commission by the army. She worked as a field surgeon near the Union front lines for almost two years until 1863, when she was finally appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland, traveling with the soldiers and working in field hospitals.
She was then appointed assistant surgeon of the 52nd Ohio Infantry where it was generally accepted that she also worked as a spy. She was taken prisoner in 1864 by Confederate soldiers and imprisoned in Richmond for four months until she was exchanged, with two dozen other Union doctors, for seventeen Confederate surgeons. She spent the rest of the war practicing in a Louisville female prison and an orphan's asylum in Tennessee.
On November 11, 1865, President Johnson signed a bill to present Dr. Mary Edwards Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service. She was the only woman ever to receive her country's highest military award. In 1917, her Congressional Medal, along with the medals of 910 others, was taken away when Congress revised the Medal of Honor standards, but Mary refused to give it back and wore it every day until her death in 1919. An Army Board reinstated Mary's medal posthumously in 1977.
After the war, Mary became a writer and lecturer, touring here and abroad on women's rights, dress reform, health and temperance issues. She was a published author, including a semi-autobiographical work. She was also something of an inventor, coming up with the idea of using a return postcard for registered mail. She was a bright and determined female patriot who was way ahead of her time. She died on February 21, 1919 and is buried in the Rural Union Cemetery in the Town of Oswego not to be confused with the City of Oswego that borders it.
By
Nancy Edwards
Charter Member who has a special interest in Mary Walker, MD.
Mary Walker, MD - Tent #28
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