August 8, 2025 • 28 mins
She wore trousers in a world that demanded corsets. She performed battlefield surgeries when women weren’t even allowed to vote. And she became the only woman in U.S. history to receive the Medal of Honor. This is the incredible, untold story of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker—a Civil War surgeon, women's rights activist, and absolute icon of unapologetic rebellion.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts bang and dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
A welcome back, New Battles American Civil War. Behind the
battles and covering somebody knew that knew? I bet not
many people I have heard of at all. I'm talking
about Mary Edwards Walker. She is the one the only
ever woman to receive the Medal of Honor.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
She was a nurse in the Civil War, and she
was also a She was a woman suffrage movement supporter
Carol guy Thing. And she also didn't like wearing dresses
oh fuck yeah, and only wanted to wear pants.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Oh h she said, Andy Jane would have got along well.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Mary. She was born November twenty sixth, eighteen thirty two,
in the town of Oswego, New York. Her parents were
Elva and Vesta Walker, and Mary was one of six kids,
four older sisters, one younger brother. And let me tell
you a Walker family. And they weren't your average eighteen
thirties American household. See Elva and Vesta were deeply religious,
(01:47):
devoted Christians, but they were also what we'd call freethinkers.
Can't be both. Basically, they'd raise their kids to question stuff,
not a rebellious break the rules just because kind of weight,
but in a thoughtful why does this rule exist? And
is it just?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And they didn't play into the usual nineteenth century gender
roles either. Vesta she was out there doing the heavy
lifting on the farm, and Elba he was perfectly fine
doing jordan'side the house.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No shit, dada, wow.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
They shared responsibilities like equals, and their kids saw that.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Every day Mary worked on the family farm alongside her siblings.
She quickly decided that traditional women's clothing, corsets, tight dresses,
all that bullshit just wasn't practical. I mean, trying to
haul hay in a courset and I don't think so.
Her mom backed her up to saying those tight clothes
(02:39):
were unhealthy. So even as a kid, Mary was pushing
back against the whole idea of what a proper lady
was supposed to be. Just take a look at education. Well,
it was a big deal in the Walker household. Elva
Investa didn't just say hey, boys go to school, girls
stay home. Nope, they wanted all their kids to get
a solid education. Late girls in and go to school.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Back then, they wanted to have to be homemakers.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Man, oh wow, so much so they actually started the
first free schoolhouse in Oswego.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Because many other ones would let the girls go.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Probably yeah, in the late eighteen thirties that happened, and
this is where Mary got her elementary schooling.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Right and fucking elementary, my dear. After that, she and
two of her older sisters went on to attend Fally
Seminary over in Fulton, New York. Faly wasn't just your
typical school. It was all about modern ideas, reforming gender
roles and proving hygiene, pushing educational standards. Basically, in aligned
perfectly with everything Mary already believed, and being in that
(03:36):
environment just made her more determined to live on her
own terms, can't be in an echo chamber.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
In her free time, Mary would dive into daddy's medical books,
text on anatomy and physiology, just out of curiosity. She
did that, but that curiosity it grew into a passion.
Eventually she started teaching school herself in a little town
called minetto New York. She saved enough money from teaching
to pay her own way to medical school, and she
(04:03):
attended Syracuse Medical College, graduated in eighteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Syracuse is around then.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Huh yeah, she graduated with honors as a doctor.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And oh yeah, she was the only woman in her class.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Look at her.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That's same, he's the only woman doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right right in that areaver. Soon that same year, just
before she turned twenty three, she got married. Just died
it out with that's ten years too late, right, stided
it out with Albert Miller, who was a fellow med student. Well,
as you might expect, Mary didn't exactly do the whole
traditional bride thing. She wore a short skirt with trousers underneath. Yeah,
because of course, she refused to say the word obey
(04:39):
in her vows. And she didn't even take her usband's
last name. I mean, come on, whoa because Mary Walker
was going to be Mary Walker no matter.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What, no hyphen or anything. Right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
They set up a joint medical practice together in Rome.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Her name was first Roman New York. That is Roman
New York, right, But.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Unfortunately, being a female doctor in the fifties of eighteen
hundreds didn't exactly inspired trust in most people, right. The
practice struggled. Eventually the marriage did too, and old Albert
he had an affair and Mary said.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Bye, he's like I want a real woman, right, yeah?
Probably eighteen sixty, Mary decided to keep pushing her education.
She briefly enrolled at Bowen Collegiate Institution today now called
Lennox College. This is in Hopkintown. This is in Hopkinton, Iowa.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Wow, that's a you know you ain't kitten.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
But she didn't stay long.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
She got suspended for refusing to resign from the school's
all male debate in society. That's right, she joined participated
and when they asked her to step down because she
was a woman, So how does she joined to participate?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And she said no because.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She was probably making the other dudes look like fool, right, so.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They kicked her out.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
That's just the beginning of Mary Edward Walker's story. As
you can already tell, she was a total force, not
a farce. From how she dressed to how she lived, loved,
and worked, she challenged just about every expectations society had
for women in the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Good for her, as you might guess. When the Civil
War broke out, she didn't wait around for someone to
ask her to help. She volunteered right away. She wanted
to serve as a surgeon for the Union Army. This
wasn't some wild idea she just came up with. She
had already been running her own private medical practice for years. Yes,
but the Army flat out rejected her because guess what,
she was a woman.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
She offered her job as a nurse instead, which that's
not what she trained for. Obviously, she got a freaking
medical degree, right, so she said no things decided to
volunteer anyway on her own terms as a surgeon, working
with the Union Army as a civilian. Oh, at the time,
the Army didn't have any female surgeon, so she was
only allowed to practice as a nurse. Despite being justice
(06:52):
qualified as the men, if not more so, she still
could only be a nurse.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Jeez.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Still, she didn't sit her own way. She jumped right
into the action and served during the first Battle of
ball Run on the twenty first of July eighteen sixty one.
Shet out To worked at the Patent Office Hospital in DC,
doing everything she could to help the wounded. She didn't
stop there either. She took her medical skills out into
the field as an unpaid field surgeon, right up near
(07:19):
the front lines. Dam She treated soldiers at Fredericksburg, Chattanooga,
and Chickamanga.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Damn well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
She wasn't just focused on medicine either. She was a
full on suffered just too. She believe in women's rights
and ego treatment, equal rights and lefts maybe, and she
was thrilled to see women finding ways of serve in
the war effort. One case in particular really stuck with her.
Stuck with her a woman named Francis Hook, who would
disguise herself as a man to fight in the Union Army. Well,
Francis ended up wounded and then the Chattanooga Hospital War two,
(07:52):
and Mary made sure the press knew about it. She
wanted people to see what women were capable of, what
getting wounded.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Eventually, Mary became the first official female surgeon for.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
The Union Army. It's a huge deal. Huge. She kept
wearing men's clothing while.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
She worked, not as some kind of statement at first,
but because it was just more practical. Long skirts and
courseats didn't exactly mix with the battlefield, right September of
eighteen sixty two, She even tried to take it one
step further and offered to work for the War Department
as a spy, which would help.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
She's a woman.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That offer got turned down, but she wasn't done pushing here. Later,
in eighteen sixty three of September, she finally got official recognition.
The Army of the Cumberland brought her on as a
contract acting assistant surgeon, still technically a civilian, but this
made her the first female surgeon officially employed by the
United States Army.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Good for cool.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But not long after she was appointed assistant surgeon of
the fifty second Ohio Infantry. And this wasn't death's work, obviously.
She was crossing battle line treating wounded civilians, doing the
real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Nice assume about.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
In April of eighteen sixty four, luck ran out for
a while. She was captured by old Confederate troops accused
of being a spy. And this was not long after
she helped a Confederate doctor performing amputation. Oh jeez, they
didn't care. They arrested her and sent her to Castle
Thunder in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
She was there for about four months from April tenth
to August twelfth, eighteen six.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I was a letter, be a spy. She was gonna
get arrested as one day.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
While she was locked up, the Confederates tried to make
her wear women's clothing, sometimes something they considered.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
More appropriate for her sex they said. She said no.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
She stuck to her principles even behind the bas Eventually
she was released in a prisoner exchange to Union traded
a capture Confederate surgeon from Tennessee to get her back.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
OK.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Not bad for someone who was originally rejected by the army. Right.
Even after that, Mary kept going.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
She went on to serve as supervisor of women's prison
in Louisville and then became head of an orphanage in Tennessee.
She didn't slow down, She just found new ways to serve.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
After the war ended. She didn't just fade in the
background either. She'd been through a lot battlefield, surgery, capture, prison,
and she left the war with some lass and injuries.
While she was imprisoned by the Confederates, she developed partial
muscular atrophy, and after the war the government awarded her
a disability pension for it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
At first, they gave her eight fifty a month. Eight
dollars in fifty a month. That's pretty good good starting
June thirteenth, eighteen sixty five, one much especially considering what
she'd endured. But by eighteen ninety nine they finally bumped
it up to twenty bucks a month, well, a little
closer to what she deserved back in the twenty bucks
a month. Twenty bucks a month in eighteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Being trry about two thousand, seven.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hundred and seventy four bucks.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Okay, stilling a lot noe wow.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Post War, Mary threw herself into the public life. She
became a writer, a public speaker, pushing for all things women,
health care reform, temperance, women's rights. Something she's really never
let go of, dress reform for women. Eighteen seventy one,
she tried to register her vote, just showed up and said,
I have that right, but of course she was turned away.
(11:09):
At that time, her argument, and the movement's early argument,
was that women already had the right to vote. Constitution
didn't explicitly forbid it, so Congress just needed to pass
a law to enforce that right. But that approach didn't
get anywhere. Eventually, the mainstream suffrage movement shifted gears and
started pushing for her constitutional amendment. Mary disagreed with that.
(11:31):
She thought the amendment wasn't necessary and stuck to her
original view. That difference of opinion, along with her non
traditional style and stubborn independence, pushed her out of the
inner circle of the movement. They're like, she'r fucking this
up right, We're getting somewhere.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Even then, she kept showing up at conventions, though handing
out her own literature making her case. However, for the
most part, the rest of the movement ignored her, and
her look didn't help win them over either. She was
known for showing up in full masculine hire, sometimes with
the top hat. She didn't dress the blend in dressed
to be herself all.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
While her style and ideas stirred up controversy in the
United States, she actually found a more supportive audience, which
was overseas. England received her more warmly than her own country.
Nineteen oh seven, she published a book called Crowning Constitutional Argument.
In that very book, she made her case again. The
right to vote for women was already baked into some
(12:26):
state constitutions and even the federal Constitution.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
She also testified in front of Congress nineteen twelve and
nineteen fourteen, she spoke before committees of the House of
Representatives about women's suffrage. She never stopped fighting for what
she believed in, but eventually age and illness caught up
with her. Mary died February twenty first, nineteen nineteen, at
the age of eighty six, at home in Oswego, New York.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Damn good and just like her.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Her funeral was simple, just the way she probably would
have wanted it. She was buried in rural cemetery wearing
a black suit instead of a dress, with an American
flag draped over her coffin. Yeah, yeah, and crazy thing
is she died just one year before the Nineteenth Amendment
was passed, finally guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
No shit owner if the Spanish flu took her out shit.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Maybe she didn't live to see it happen, but she
spent her entire life pushing for it.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
To look at the dress reform from a very young age.
May reason inspired by her parents' practical approach to dressing,
especially when it came to health. They believe clothes should
be functional, not restrictive. Mary took that idea and ran
with it. She became famous and may be infamous, for
challenging the traditional women's roadrobe. Back then, this push for
more practical, comfortable clothing what's called the rational dress movement.
(13:40):
Eighteen seventy one, she wrote something that really sums it up.
She said, the greatest sorrows from which women suffer today
are those physical, moral.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And mental ones.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
There are calls by their unhygienic manner of dressing. In
other words, of course, it's heavy skirts, layers of petticoats.
They were just uncomfortable. They were unhealthy. They restricted moved,
they made it hotted to breathe. They literally dragged women down.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's quite true.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I have to agree, that's a debate.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I Mary hated long skirts with tons of petticoats, not
just because they were annoying to wear, but because they
collected dust and dirt everywhere he went. She wanted to
be able to move. She wanted women to be able
to move, breathe, and live freely. So she started experimenting
as a young woman should begin modifying her outfits, changing
up skirt links, reducing layers, and always wearing men's trousers. Underneath.
(14:29):
By eighteen sixty one, she had to go to look
trousers with suspenders, a tight waisted knee link dress full
with a full skirt that was kind of a mash
up between a Victorian dress and a utilitarian work uniform.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Her family backed her up, by society.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Not so much.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
One time she was working as a school teacher. She
was walking home and a local farmer and a group
of boys attacked her. I threw eggs, oh shit, and
who knows what outside her just because of the way
she dressed. Classmates in medical school weren't kind either. Other
female students criticize her openly, and when she started practicing medicine,
patience was sometimes gawk.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
At her or even mocker.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Only dude of the Savior lefe right, But Mary didn't
back down for her dress reform was just as important
as any of her other causes. She believed that women's
clothing should protect the body and not heard it then,
should allow freedom of movement and blood circulation, that it
shouldn't turn the wearer into a slave for fashion.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
She even wrote to the Sibyl, which was a women's journal,
with the absolutely fantastic full title of a review of
the tastes, errors and fashions.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Of society, Oh fantastic.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
In her letters, she didn't just talk about the health
risks of women's fashion. She went all in blaming in
practical clothing for everything from wasting money to ruined marriages.
She argued that these ridiculous fashion standards were hurting women
in every possible way physically, emotionally, socially, mentally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's crazy verbally.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Just because she got divorced, because her because her husband
onet of.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
A real women her writing called on.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
She became a well known voice among feminists and other
female's physicians who saw how closely health, freedom, inequality were
all tied together. Now standing out like that had consequences.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
As we all know.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
In eighteen seventy, while she was Nolnce, she got arrested
from more orange man's clothing, and not quietly either. Men
who arrested her mocked her relentlessly. One officer twisted her
arm and even asked her if she ever been with
a man at all Like her clothing somehow gave them
permission to interrogate her private life, But once they realized
(16:43):
who she was, doctor Mary Edwards Walker, they let her go.
She was too well known, too public to just disappear
quietly into adjacent right to a jail cell jasip. And
still none of it stopped her. She kept go wearing
what worked for her. She kept pushing for reform. She
(17:03):
kept refusing to let anyone else define what it meant
to be a warman.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Whoa man? Let's talk about that medal of honor that
we u mentioned earlier, we promised after the war, Mary
Edwards Walker wasn't done pushing for recognition. She'd give them everything,
her time, her health, even her freedom, and she wanted
her service formally acknowledged. So she went after something that
hadn't been done before, a retroactive military commission or Brevett
(17:29):
to validate what she'd done for the Army.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
She deserves it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh. President Andrew Johnson actually got involved and told Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton to look into whether it was
even legally possible. Stanton asked the Army's judge advocate general,
who came back with a tricky answer, there was no
precedent for commission in a woman, but he said maybe
they could issue something else, something kind of an honorary
recognition instead.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Assholes.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Well that's when President Johnson, and he made a personal
decision instead of a commission.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He ordered Mary the Medal of Honor.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, but if he had a commissioned, she would have
got a pension.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Right, the highest military decoration in the United States.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Here's twist.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
She wasn't officially recommended for it through the usual military channels,
and because she didn't technically hold a commission, she shouldn't
have been l's go in the first place. But in
the unusual case, it just happened, and for a while
that was that for a while.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Then fast forward to nineteen sixteen. Fifty years later, Congress
they passed a new law create a pension for Medal
of Honor recipients, but as part of that they established
separate Medal of Honor roles for the Army and Navy.
Around the same time, the Army decided it wanted to
go back and clean things up, to retroactively review all
previous recipients and weed out what they called undesirable.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Right because a lot back then they were just given neighbor.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
The problem was when the Medal of Honor was first graded,
there weren't any real regulations. You could get one for
just about anything. In fact, nearly nine hundred soldiers received
the medal just for re enlisting. That's not a metal
of honor.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, come on, come on, beliez. So the Army put
together a new Medal of Honor board from nineteen sixteen
to nineteen seventeen. This board reviewed every freaking name that
ended up removing nine hundred and eleven people from the
Army Medal of Honor row. That list included you guessed it,
Mary Edwards, Walker, and even Buffalo Bill William Cody.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Mary's case.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
The reasoning was the laws on the books in eighteen
sixty two, eighteen sixty three, and nineteen oh four all
clearly said recipients had to be commissioned officers or enlisted soldiers.
Mary had served as a contract surgeon, which was a civilian,
so technically no Medal of honor.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Oh there, it's a little shady. The board didn't remove
everyone who was technically ineligible. At least two other contract
surgeons were allowed.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
To keep their medals. Oh my.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
One of them was Leonard Wood, who later became Army
Chief of Staff. When he got the Medal of honor,
he'd been a civilian contractor too, just like Mary.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Oh wow, the.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Board knew that. In fact, the head of the Board,
General Nelson Miles, had recommended Wood for the medal twice,
still took Mary's away.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Despite removing her from the Medal of Vanna Row, the
Army didn't actually ask for the metal back, though that's
because their own Judge Advocate General pointed out they didn't have.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
The legal power to enforce it.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Congress hadn't granted them jurisdiction to demand its return or
to penalize people for keeping their medals, So technically Mary
never had to give it up, though her name was
officially struck from the Row. Whatever, I still got this, motherfucker,
I still got it. Didn't have their names on them,
right not.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Maybe Mayer's things get a little messy and honestly a
bit misunderstood. So a lot of people say President Jimmy
Carter restored Mary's metal vana in nineteen seventy seven, but
that's probably not true. That decision actually came from way
lower in the chain, which from the Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. They were acting
on a recommendation from the Board for the Correction of
(20:56):
Military Records, okay, but he had.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
The power, right. Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
The weird part, well, neither the Ford nor Carter administration
supported this move. When Carter's White House found out the
Board had reinstated the metal, the direction was basically, wait
what what? They were confused for good reason, because there's
the thing, you know, the Board of Correction is the
only supposed to fix errors or injustices. It's not supposed
(21:22):
to override federal law.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Boys.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Mary's removal had been based on that law. So the restoration,
well meaning probably exceeded the Board's legal authority.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
All right, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
All right?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, you can see how complicated the skits when you
look at the case of Garland Connor, who was another
Medal of Honor recipient who was recognized after Mary. His
ward in twenty eighteen, also came through the Board for Correction.
But that one followed all the legal steps, It went
through the President and required a special waiver from Congress.
And that's what should have happened in Mary's case too,
But it didn't didn't.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Did it? Still?
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Through all the red tape and legal arguments, one thing
never changed. Mary believed she earned that medal. In her
own words, she said, She received it because she had
the courage to go into enemy territory and treat the suffering,
something no man had dared to do for fear of capture.
And as we know, she was captured and in prison
(22:19):
for four months for doing exactly that. Her official Medal
of Honor citation laid it out in detail that lists
her service at bull Run the Patent Office Hospital Chattanooga
after Chickamauga, and even includes her time as a prisoner
of Warren Richmond praises her patriotic zeal and the toll
her service took on her health, and since she couldn't
be given a commissioner honorary military rank under the law,
(22:42):
the Medal of Honor was awarded as an alternative, which
was to recognize the incredible work she had done. And
that's how Mary Edwards Walker, a contract surgeon, civil War veteran,
pow and dress performer, became the only woman in US
history to receive the Medal of Honor, and she was
also inducted to the National Women's Hall of Fame in two thousand.
Took you long enough from Women's Hall of Fame who
(23:03):
put in before her sh well, her legacy did not
end with her death. In fact, it kept growing over
the decades. People have found some pretty incredible ways to
honor her. During World War Two, the United States launchdate
liberty ship named after her, the S. S. Mary Walker.
Now those ships they were built fasts and in huge
numbers to help the war effort, but everyone got one
(23:26):
named after them. It was a meaningful nod to her
wartime service, even if it was eighty years after the
Civil War.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Then in nineteen eighty two, the US Postal Service honored
her with her own twenty cent stamp, commemorating her birthday
and putting her face in mailboxes across the country. At
suny Swego, her hometown college, the medical center is named
the Mary Walker Health Center.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Syracuse, oh.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And right outside of it there's a plaque explaining just
how on board she was in the Oswego community and
really to the country.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Oh there's also United States Armory Center in Walker, Michigan
that bears her name, a solid nod from the military.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
That once refused the commission her.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And then if you're over to DC, there's the Whitman
Walker Clinic, name for both Walt Whitman, who served as
a nurse during the Civil war element and Mary, two unconventional,
deeply compassionate people who gave everything to help the wounded
at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in California. There's
also the Mary Walker Clinic, continue to provide care to
today's soldiers, just as Mary did for the Union troops
(24:31):
over one hundred and fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Well in Philly, her legacy touches another critical cause. The
Mary E. Walker House is a transitional residence with thirty
beds which is run by the Philadelphia Veterans Multi Service
and Education Center. It's specifically for homeless women veterans, a
group that Mary would have championed with ever fiber ever
been back in her home down back in her hometown
I Swagon, New York. They took things a step further
(24:56):
May the town unveiled a nine hundred pound bronze statue
of Mary Walker based on her actual weight, right in
front of town hall. It's a striking tribute because allowed
you on or someone that bowled that unshakable, the unshakable
Mary Walker.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Right, that's a hell of a name. She's also earned
her place in pop culture. Twenty nineteen, Hillary and Chelsea, Yeah,
after they got finished eating their babies. They wrote a
book called the Book of Gutsy Women Eating Gutsies out
of women favorite stories of courage and resilience, which, let's
be honest, she's one hundred percents belongs in Once.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
We Our search, hundred percent belongs in Witch.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Let's be honest, she one hundred percent belongs in that book.
And then came a huge moment in twenty twenty three,
United States Defense Department was renaming basis. They had previously
been named after Confederate soldiers, one of those for ap
Hill in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Didn't deserve them base anythore no Well August twenty fifth,
two twenty three, was officially renamed Fort Walker in honor
of Clearly, that made her the first women in US
history to have a military base exclusively named after army.
They once told her she couldn't be a surgeon because
she was a woman, and now an entire base carries
her name. But wait, there's a twist. Because of O
(26:18):
Hitler himself, Donald Trump coming in June twenty twenty five,
that administration changed the base name reportedly to Fort Anderson
pin Hill, which seems to combine names of different historical figures,
which includes ap hill, so they had to get the
hill in there again. It's unclear how permanent that is,
but for a brief shining moment, fort Walker stood as
a singular tribute to Mary. He couldn't even keep Walker
(26:41):
in there, and.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Just when you think her story couldn't stretch any further.
Twenty twenty four, Mary Edwards Walker honored on the United
States Quarter as part of the American Women's Series. The
coin shows her hold in her pocket surgical kit with
the medal of Honor and a surgeon pan on her uniform.
It's bold, it's dignified. It's exactly the kind of image
(27:05):
you'd expect from someone who never let anyone tell her
who she could be. She is Mary Edwards Walker.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Alright, that's Mary Why Edwards Walker. And we'll be back
next week for more Union guy probably And yeah, I
like scribe share all that good stuff of honor winner,
good for her, And yeah, we'll see you next week
for more Battles of America War Beyond Battles of Nangi
The bloodiest war on American soil. States versus States, Brothers
versus brothers. Join hosts bang and dang as they take
you battle by battle through the most divisive time in
American history. Welcome to Battles of the American Civil War.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
A welcome back, New Battles American Civil War. Behind the
battles and covering somebody knew that knew? I bet not
many people I have heard of at all. I'm talking
about Mary Edwards Walker. She is the one the only
ever woman to receive the Medal of Honor.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
She was a nurse in the Civil War, and she
was also a She was a woman suffrage movement supporter
Carol guy Thing. And she also didn't like wearing dresses
oh fuck yeah, and only wanted to wear pants.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Oh h she said, Andy Jane would have got along well.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Mary. She was born November twenty sixth, eighteen thirty two,
in the town of Oswego, New York. Her parents were
Elva and Vesta Walker, and Mary was one of six kids,
four older sisters, one younger brother. And let me tell
you a Walker family. And they weren't your average eighteen
thirties American household. See Elva and Vesta were deeply religious,
(01:47):
devoted Christians, but they were also what we'd call freethinkers.
Can't be both. Basically, they'd raise their kids to question stuff,
not a rebellious break the rules just because kind of weight,
but in a thoughtful why does this rule exist? And
is it just?
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And they didn't play into the usual nineteenth century gender
roles either. Vesta she was out there doing the heavy
lifting on the farm, and Elba he was perfectly fine
doing jordan'side the house.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No shit, dada, wow.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
They shared responsibilities like equals, and their kids saw that.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Every day Mary worked on the family farm alongside her siblings.
She quickly decided that traditional women's clothing, corsets, tight dresses,
all that bullshit just wasn't practical. I mean, trying to
haul hay in a courset and I don't think so.
Her mom backed her up to saying those tight clothes
(02:39):
were unhealthy. So even as a kid, Mary was pushing
back against the whole idea of what a proper lady
was supposed to be. Just take a look at education. Well,
it was a big deal in the Walker household. Elva
Investa didn't just say hey, boys go to school, girls
stay home. Nope, they wanted all their kids to get
a solid education. Late girls in and go to school.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Back then, they wanted to have to be homemakers.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Man, oh wow, so much so they actually started the
first free schoolhouse in Oswego.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
Because many other ones would let the girls go.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
Probably yeah, in the late eighteen thirties that happened, and
this is where Mary got her elementary schooling.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Right and fucking elementary, my dear. After that, she and
two of her older sisters went on to attend Fally
Seminary over in Fulton, New York. Faly wasn't just your
typical school. It was all about modern ideas, reforming gender
roles and proving hygiene, pushing educational standards. Basically, in aligned
perfectly with everything Mary already believed, and being in that
(03:36):
environment just made her more determined to live on her
own terms, can't be in an echo chamber.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Right.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
In her free time, Mary would dive into daddy's medical books,
text on anatomy and physiology, just out of curiosity. She
did that, but that curiosity it grew into a passion.
Eventually she started teaching school herself in a little town
called minetto New York. She saved enough money from teaching
to pay her own way to medical school, and she
(04:03):
attended Syracuse Medical College, graduated in eighteen fifty five.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Syracuse is around then.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
Huh yeah, she graduated with honors as a doctor.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
And oh yeah, she was the only woman in her class.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Look at her.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
That's same, he's the only woman doctor.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Right right in that areaver. Soon that same year, just
before she turned twenty three, she got married. Just died
it out with that's ten years too late, right, stided
it out with Albert Miller, who was a fellow med student. Well,
as you might expect, Mary didn't exactly do the whole
traditional bride thing. She wore a short skirt with trousers underneath. Yeah,
because of course, she refused to say the word obey
(04:39):
in her vows. And she didn't even take her usband's
last name. I mean, come on, whoa because Mary Walker
was going to be Mary Walker no matter.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
What, no hyphen or anything. Right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
They set up a joint medical practice together in Rome.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Her name was first Roman New York. That is Roman
New York, right, But.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Unfortunately, being a female doctor in the fifties of eighteen
hundreds didn't exactly inspired trust in most people, right. The
practice struggled. Eventually the marriage did too, and old Albert
he had an affair and Mary said.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
Bye, he's like I want a real woman, right, yeah?
Probably eighteen sixty, Mary decided to keep pushing her education.
She briefly enrolled at Bowen Collegiate Institution today now called
Lennox College. This is in Hopkintown. This is in Hopkinton, Iowa.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Wow, that's a you know you ain't kitten.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
But she didn't stay long.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
She got suspended for refusing to resign from the school's
all male debate in society. That's right, she joined participated
and when they asked her to step down because she
was a woman, So how does she joined to participate?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
All right?
Speaker 3 (05:44):
And she said no because.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
She was probably making the other dudes look like fool, right, so.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
They kicked her out.
Speaker 4 (05:50):
That's just the beginning of Mary Edward Walker's story. As
you can already tell, she was a total force, not
a farce. From how she dressed to how she lived, loved,
and worked, she challenged just about every expectations society had
for women in the eighteen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Good for her, as you might guess. When the Civil
War broke out, she didn't wait around for someone to
ask her to help. She volunteered right away. She wanted
to serve as a surgeon for the Union Army. This
wasn't some wild idea she just came up with. She
had already been running her own private medical practice for years. Yes,
but the Army flat out rejected her because guess what,
she was a woman.
Speaker 3 (06:29):
That makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
She offered her job as a nurse instead, which that's
not what she trained for. Obviously, she got a freaking
medical degree, right, so she said no things decided to
volunteer anyway on her own terms as a surgeon, working
with the Union Army as a civilian. Oh, at the time,
the Army didn't have any female surgeon, so she was
only allowed to practice as a nurse. Despite being justice
(06:52):
qualified as the men, if not more so, she still
could only be a nurse.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Jeez.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
Still, she didn't sit her own way. She jumped right
into the action and served during the first Battle of
ball Run on the twenty first of July eighteen sixty one.
Shet out To worked at the Patent Office Hospital in DC,
doing everything she could to help the wounded. She didn't
stop there either. She took her medical skills out into
the field as an unpaid field surgeon, right up near
(07:19):
the front lines. Dam She treated soldiers at Fredericksburg, Chattanooga,
and Chickamanga.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Damn well.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
She wasn't just focused on medicine either. She was a
full on suffered just too. She believe in women's rights
and ego treatment, equal rights and lefts maybe, and she
was thrilled to see women finding ways of serve in
the war effort. One case in particular really stuck with her.
Stuck with her a woman named Francis Hook, who would
disguise herself as a man to fight in the Union Army. Well,
Francis ended up wounded and then the Chattanooga Hospital War two,
(07:52):
and Mary made sure the press knew about it. She
wanted people to see what women were capable of, what
getting wounded.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Eventually, Mary became the first official female surgeon for.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
The Union Army. It's a huge deal. Huge. She kept
wearing men's clothing while.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
She worked, not as some kind of statement at first,
but because it was just more practical. Long skirts and
courseats didn't exactly mix with the battlefield, right September of
eighteen sixty two, She even tried to take it one
step further and offered to work for the War Department
as a spy, which would help.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
She's a woman.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
That offer got turned down, but she wasn't done pushing here. Later,
in eighteen sixty three of September, she finally got official recognition.
The Army of the Cumberland brought her on as a
contract acting assistant surgeon, still technically a civilian, but this
made her the first female surgeon officially employed by the
United States Army.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Good for cool.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
But not long after she was appointed assistant surgeon of
the fifty second Ohio Infantry. And this wasn't death's work, obviously.
She was crossing battle line treating wounded civilians, doing the
real thing.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
Nice assume about.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
In April of eighteen sixty four, luck ran out for
a while. She was captured by old Confederate troops accused
of being a spy. And this was not long after
she helped a Confederate doctor performing amputation. Oh jeez, they
didn't care. They arrested her and sent her to Castle
Thunder in Richmond, Virginia.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (09:17):
She was there for about four months from April tenth
to August twelfth, eighteen six.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
I was a letter, be a spy. She was gonna
get arrested as one day.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
While she was locked up, the Confederates tried to make
her wear women's clothing, sometimes something they considered.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
More appropriate for her sex they said. She said no.
Speaker 4 (09:33):
She stuck to her principles even behind the bas Eventually
she was released in a prisoner exchange to Union traded
a capture Confederate surgeon from Tennessee to get her back.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
OK.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Not bad for someone who was originally rejected by the army. Right.
Even after that, Mary kept going.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
She went on to serve as supervisor of women's prison
in Louisville and then became head of an orphanage in Tennessee.
She didn't slow down, She just found new ways to serve.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
After the war ended. She didn't just fade in the
background either. She'd been through a lot battlefield, surgery, capture, prison,
and she left the war with some lass and injuries.
While she was imprisoned by the Confederates, she developed partial
muscular atrophy, and after the war the government awarded her
a disability pension for it.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
At first, they gave her eight fifty a month. Eight
dollars in fifty a month. That's pretty good good starting
June thirteenth, eighteen sixty five, one much especially considering what
she'd endured. But by eighteen ninety nine they finally bumped
it up to twenty bucks a month, well, a little
closer to what she deserved back in the twenty bucks
a month. Twenty bucks a month in eighteen ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
Being trry about two thousand, seven.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
Hundred and seventy four bucks.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Okay, stilling a lot noe wow.
Speaker 4 (10:45):
Post War, Mary threw herself into the public life. She
became a writer, a public speaker, pushing for all things women,
health care reform, temperance, women's rights. Something she's really never
let go of, dress reform for women. Eighteen seventy one,
she tried to register her vote, just showed up and said,
I have that right, but of course she was turned away.
(11:09):
At that time, her argument, and the movement's early argument,
was that women already had the right to vote. Constitution
didn't explicitly forbid it, so Congress just needed to pass
a law to enforce that right. But that approach didn't
get anywhere. Eventually, the mainstream suffrage movement shifted gears and
started pushing for her constitutional amendment. Mary disagreed with that.
(11:31):
She thought the amendment wasn't necessary and stuck to her
original view. That difference of opinion, along with her non
traditional style and stubborn independence, pushed her out of the
inner circle of the movement. They're like, she'r fucking this
up right, We're getting somewhere.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Even then, she kept showing up at conventions, though handing
out her own literature making her case. However, for the
most part, the rest of the movement ignored her, and
her look didn't help win them over either. She was
known for showing up in full masculine hire, sometimes with
the top hat. She didn't dress the blend in dressed
to be herself all.
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (12:03):
While her style and ideas stirred up controversy in the
United States, she actually found a more supportive audience, which
was overseas. England received her more warmly than her own country.
Nineteen oh seven, she published a book called Crowning Constitutional Argument.
In that very book, she made her case again. The
right to vote for women was already baked into some
(12:26):
state constitutions and even the federal Constitution.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
She also testified in front of Congress nineteen twelve and
nineteen fourteen, she spoke before committees of the House of
Representatives about women's suffrage. She never stopped fighting for what
she believed in, but eventually age and illness caught up
with her. Mary died February twenty first, nineteen nineteen, at
the age of eighty six, at home in Oswego, New York.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Damn good and just like her.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Her funeral was simple, just the way she probably would
have wanted it. She was buried in rural cemetery wearing
a black suit instead of a dress, with an American
flag draped over her coffin. Yeah, yeah, and crazy thing
is she died just one year before the Nineteenth Amendment
was passed, finally guaranteeing women the right to vote.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
No shit owner if the Spanish flu took her out shit.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
Maybe she didn't live to see it happen, but she
spent her entire life pushing for it.
Speaker 4 (13:16):
To look at the dress reform from a very young age.
May reason inspired by her parents' practical approach to dressing,
especially when it came to health. They believe clothes should
be functional, not restrictive. Mary took that idea and ran
with it. She became famous and may be infamous, for
challenging the traditional women's roadrobe. Back then, this push for
more practical, comfortable clothing what's called the rational dress movement.
(13:40):
Eighteen seventy one, she wrote something that really sums it up.
She said, the greatest sorrows from which women suffer today
are those physical, moral.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
And mental ones.
Speaker 4 (13:50):
There are calls by their unhygienic manner of dressing. In
other words, of course, it's heavy skirts, layers of petticoats.
They were just uncomfortable. They were unhealthy. They restricted moved,
they made it hotted to breathe. They literally dragged women down.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
It's quite true.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I have to agree, that's a debate.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I Mary hated long skirts with tons of petticoats, not
just because they were annoying to wear, but because they
collected dust and dirt everywhere he went. She wanted to
be able to move. She wanted women to be able
to move, breathe, and live freely. So she started experimenting
as a young woman should begin modifying her outfits, changing
up skirt links, reducing layers, and always wearing men's trousers. Underneath.
(14:29):
By eighteen sixty one, she had to go to look
trousers with suspenders, a tight waisted knee link dress full
with a full skirt that was kind of a mash
up between a Victorian dress and a utilitarian work uniform.
Speaker 4 (14:43):
Her family backed her up, by society.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Not so much.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
One time she was working as a school teacher. She
was walking home and a local farmer and a group
of boys attacked her. I threw eggs, oh shit, and
who knows what outside her just because of the way
she dressed. Classmates in medical school weren't kind either. Other
female students criticize her openly, and when she started practicing medicine,
patience was sometimes gawk.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
At her or even mocker.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Only dude of the Savior lefe right, But Mary didn't
back down for her dress reform was just as important
as any of her other causes. She believed that women's
clothing should protect the body and not heard it then,
should allow freedom of movement and blood circulation, that it
shouldn't turn the wearer into a slave for fashion.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
She even wrote to the Sibyl, which was a women's journal,
with the absolutely fantastic full title of a review of
the tastes, errors and fashions.
Speaker 3 (15:37):
Of society, Oh fantastic.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
In her letters, she didn't just talk about the health
risks of women's fashion. She went all in blaming in
practical clothing for everything from wasting money to ruined marriages.
She argued that these ridiculous fashion standards were hurting women
in every possible way physically, emotionally, socially, mentally.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It's crazy verbally.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Just because she got divorced, because her because her husband
onet of.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
A real women her writing called on.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
She became a well known voice among feminists and other
female's physicians who saw how closely health, freedom, inequality were
all tied together. Now standing out like that had consequences.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
As we all know.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
In eighteen seventy, while she was Nolnce, she got arrested
from more orange man's clothing, and not quietly either. Men
who arrested her mocked her relentlessly. One officer twisted her
arm and even asked her if she ever been with
a man at all Like her clothing somehow gave them
permission to interrogate her private life, But once they realized
(16:43):
who she was, doctor Mary Edwards Walker, they let her go.
She was too well known, too public to just disappear
quietly into adjacent right to a jail cell jasip. And
still none of it stopped her. She kept go wearing
what worked for her. She kept pushing for reform. She
(17:03):
kept refusing to let anyone else define what it meant
to be a warman.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Whoa man? Let's talk about that medal of honor that
we u mentioned earlier, we promised after the war, Mary
Edwards Walker wasn't done pushing for recognition. She'd give them everything,
her time, her health, even her freedom, and she wanted
her service formally acknowledged. So she went after something that
hadn't been done before, a retroactive military commission or Brevett
(17:29):
to validate what she'd done for the Army.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
She deserves it.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
Oh. President Andrew Johnson actually got involved and told Secretary
of War Edwin Stanton to look into whether it was
even legally possible. Stanton asked the Army's judge advocate general,
who came back with a tricky answer, there was no
precedent for commission in a woman, but he said maybe
they could issue something else, something kind of an honorary
recognition instead.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
Assholes.
Speaker 4 (17:53):
Well that's when President Johnson, and he made a personal
decision instead of a commission.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
He ordered Mary the Medal of Honor.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Yeah, but if he had a commissioned, she would have
got a pension.
Speaker 4 (18:01):
Right, the highest military decoration in the United States.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Here's twist.
Speaker 4 (18:06):
She wasn't officially recommended for it through the usual military channels,
and because she didn't technically hold a commission, she shouldn't
have been l's go in the first place. But in
the unusual case, it just happened, and for a while
that was that for a while.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Then fast forward to nineteen sixteen. Fifty years later, Congress
they passed a new law create a pension for Medal
of Honor recipients, but as part of that they established
separate Medal of Honor roles for the Army and Navy.
Around the same time, the Army decided it wanted to
go back and clean things up, to retroactively review all
previous recipients and weed out what they called undesirable.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Right because a lot back then they were just given neighbor.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
The problem was when the Medal of Honor was first graded,
there weren't any real regulations. You could get one for
just about anything. In fact, nearly nine hundred soldiers received
the medal just for re enlisting. That's not a metal
of honor.
Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah, come on, come on, beliez. So the Army put
together a new Medal of Honor board from nineteen sixteen
to nineteen seventeen. This board reviewed every freaking name that
ended up removing nine hundred and eleven people from the
Army Medal of Honor row. That list included you guessed it,
Mary Edwards, Walker, and even Buffalo Bill William Cody.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Mary's case.
Speaker 4 (19:20):
The reasoning was the laws on the books in eighteen
sixty two, eighteen sixty three, and nineteen oh four all
clearly said recipients had to be commissioned officers or enlisted soldiers.
Mary had served as a contract surgeon, which was a civilian,
so technically no Medal of honor.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Oh there, it's a little shady. The board didn't remove
everyone who was technically ineligible. At least two other contract
surgeons were allowed.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
To keep their medals. Oh my.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
One of them was Leonard Wood, who later became Army
Chief of Staff. When he got the Medal of honor,
he'd been a civilian contractor too, just like Mary.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Oh wow, the.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
Board knew that. In fact, the head of the Board,
General Nelson Miles, had recommended Wood for the medal twice,
still took Mary's away.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Oh wow wow.
Speaker 4 (20:04):
Despite removing her from the Medal of Vanna Row, the
Army didn't actually ask for the metal back, though that's
because their own Judge Advocate General pointed out they didn't have.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
The legal power to enforce it.
Speaker 4 (20:16):
Congress hadn't granted them jurisdiction to demand its return or
to penalize people for keeping their medals, So technically Mary
never had to give it up, though her name was
officially struck from the Row. Whatever, I still got this, motherfucker,
I still got it. Didn't have their names on them,
right not.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Maybe Mayer's things get a little messy and honestly a
bit misunderstood. So a lot of people say President Jimmy
Carter restored Mary's metal vana in nineteen seventy seven, but
that's probably not true. That decision actually came from way
lower in the chain, which from the Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. They were acting
on a recommendation from the Board for the Correction of
(20:56):
Military Records, okay, but he had.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
The power, right. Wow.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
The weird part, well, neither the Ford nor Carter administration
supported this move. When Carter's White House found out the
Board had reinstated the metal, the direction was basically, wait
what what? They were confused for good reason, because there's
the thing, you know, the Board of Correction is the
only supposed to fix errors or injustices. It's not supposed
(21:22):
to override federal law.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Boys.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Mary's removal had been based on that law. So the restoration,
well meaning probably exceeded the Board's legal authority.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
All right, what are you doing?
Speaker 3 (21:33):
All right?
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Well, you can see how complicated the skits when you
look at the case of Garland Connor, who was another
Medal of Honor recipient who was recognized after Mary. His
ward in twenty eighteen, also came through the Board for Correction.
But that one followed all the legal steps, It went
through the President and required a special waiver from Congress.
And that's what should have happened in Mary's case too,
But it didn't didn't.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Did it? Still?
Speaker 4 (21:57):
Through all the red tape and legal arguments, one thing
never changed. Mary believed she earned that medal. In her
own words, she said, She received it because she had
the courage to go into enemy territory and treat the suffering,
something no man had dared to do for fear of capture.
And as we know, she was captured and in prison
(22:19):
for four months for doing exactly that. Her official Medal
of Honor citation laid it out in detail that lists
her service at bull Run the Patent Office Hospital Chattanooga
after Chickamauga, and even includes her time as a prisoner
of Warren Richmond praises her patriotic zeal and the toll
her service took on her health, and since she couldn't
be given a commissioner honorary military rank under the law,
(22:42):
the Medal of Honor was awarded as an alternative, which
was to recognize the incredible work she had done. And
that's how Mary Edwards Walker, a contract surgeon, civil War veteran,
pow and dress performer, became the only woman in US
history to receive the Medal of Honor, and she was
also inducted to the National Women's Hall of Fame in two thousand.
Took you long enough from Women's Hall of Fame who
(23:03):
put in before her sh well, her legacy did not
end with her death. In fact, it kept growing over
the decades. People have found some pretty incredible ways to
honor her. During World War Two, the United States launchdate
liberty ship named after her, the S. S. Mary Walker.
Now those ships they were built fasts and in huge
numbers to help the war effort, but everyone got one
(23:26):
named after them. It was a meaningful nod to her
wartime service, even if it was eighty years after the
Civil War.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
Then in nineteen eighty two, the US Postal Service honored
her with her own twenty cent stamp, commemorating her birthday
and putting her face in mailboxes across the country. At
suny Swego, her hometown college, the medical center is named
the Mary Walker Health Center.
Speaker 3 (23:48):
Syracuse, oh.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
And right outside of it there's a plaque explaining just
how on board she was in the Oswego community and
really to the country.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
Oh there's also United States Armory Center in Walker, Michigan
that bears her name, a solid nod from the military.
Speaker 3 (24:05):
That once refused the commission her.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
And then if you're over to DC, there's the Whitman
Walker Clinic, name for both Walt Whitman, who served as
a nurse during the Civil war element and Mary, two unconventional,
deeply compassionate people who gave everything to help the wounded
at the Fort Irwin National Training Center in California. There's
also the Mary Walker Clinic, continue to provide care to
today's soldiers, just as Mary did for the Union troops
(24:31):
over one hundred and fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
Well in Philly, her legacy touches another critical cause. The
Mary E. Walker House is a transitional residence with thirty
beds which is run by the Philadelphia Veterans Multi Service
and Education Center. It's specifically for homeless women veterans, a
group that Mary would have championed with ever fiber ever
been back in her home down back in her hometown
I Swagon, New York. They took things a step further
(24:56):
May the town unveiled a nine hundred pound bronze statue
of Mary Walker based on her actual weight, right in
front of town hall. It's a striking tribute because allowed
you on or someone that bowled that unshakable, the unshakable
Mary Walker.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
Right, that's a hell of a name. She's also earned
her place in pop culture. Twenty nineteen, Hillary and Chelsea, Yeah,
after they got finished eating their babies. They wrote a
book called the Book of Gutsy Women Eating Gutsies out
of women favorite stories of courage and resilience, which, let's
be honest, she's one hundred percents belongs in Once.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
We Our search, hundred percent belongs in Witch.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
Let's be honest, she one hundred percent belongs in that book.
And then came a huge moment in twenty twenty three,
United States Defense Department was renaming basis. They had previously
been named after Confederate soldiers, one of those for ap
Hill in Virginia.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Didn't deserve them base anythore no Well August twenty fifth,
two twenty three, was officially renamed Fort Walker in honor
of Clearly, that made her the first women in US
history to have a military base exclusively named after army.
They once told her she couldn't be a surgeon because
she was a woman, and now an entire base carries
her name. But wait, there's a twist. Because of O
(26:18):
Hitler himself, Donald Trump coming in June twenty twenty five,
that administration changed the base name reportedly to Fort Anderson
pin Hill, which seems to combine names of different historical figures,
which includes ap hill, so they had to get the
hill in there again. It's unclear how permanent that is,
but for a brief shining moment, fort Walker stood as
a singular tribute to Mary. He couldn't even keep Walker
(26:41):
in there, and.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
Just when you think her story couldn't stretch any further.
Twenty twenty four, Mary Edwards Walker honored on the United
States Quarter as part of the American Women's Series. The
coin shows her hold in her pocket surgical kit with
the medal of Honor and a surgeon pan on her uniform.
It's bold, it's dignified. It's exactly the kind of image
(27:05):
you'd expect from someone who never let anyone tell her
who she could be. She is Mary Edwards Walker.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
Alright, that's Mary Why Edwards Walker. And we'll be back
next week for more Union guy probably And yeah, I
like scribe share all that good stuff of honor winner,
good for her, And yeah, we'll see you next week
for more Battles of America War Beyond Battles of Nangi
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