Mary
Edwards Walker
1832-1919
The only woman (and one of the few civilians) to be awarded the Medal of
Honor by the United States.
She got a full medical degree from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. After the start of the Civil War, she tried to join the
U.S. Army medical corps, but because the army couldn't wrap its head
around the idea of a woman doctor, she was only allowed to be a nurse. She
frequently ran out to tend wounded soldiers who had fallen between
the lines.
Throughout her life, she routinely wore men's clothes as more
comfortable and more practical, for which she was often arrested. When the Confederates
captured her wearing men's clothing, they
imprisoned her as a spy in Castle Thunder in Richmond.
Medical
Reformers
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