Editor’s note: ninth in a series on Civil War notables.
An American feminist, suffragist, suspected spy, prisoner of war and surgeon, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker remains the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor. During the Civil War, she spent several months serving at Union hospitals in Chattanooga before being arrested as a spy.
Mary Edwards Walker was born in 1832 in Oswego, New York, the fifth daughter of abolitionists Alvah and Vesta Whitcomb Walker. Her parents encouraged her to think for herself, question theologies and challenge gender roles. They allowed her to wear “bloomer” pants on the farm instead of the constricting skirts and corsets. She always argued that traditional women’s dress was uncomfortable, limited mobility and spread dust and dirt.
As a young woman, she attended several different educational institutions including the Falley Seminary in Fulton, New York, where she was introduced to contemporary social reforms involving gender roles, education and hygiene. After becoming a teacher, she saved enough to enroll at Syracuse Medical College, where she studied surgery and obstetrics, graduating with honors, the only woman in her class.
(READ MORE: Local history: Kate Cumming, Confederate nurse, recorded her experience)