What Are Mary Walker's Accomplishments

Mary Walker was an avid women’s rights activist. She spent her entire life working towards equality for women, specifically trying to change the ways women dressed. Along with being an activist, Walker was an extremely talented physician. This woman flourished in her field of work and was one of the only women in this line of work at the time. On top of all of her achievements in life, Mary Walker is the only woman to ever receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. On November 26, 1832 in Oswego, New York, Mary Walker was born to an abolitionist family. Daughter of Alvah and Vesta Walker, Mary was the youngest of 5 daughters. Her parents both thought that women’s fashion was restricting, thus Mary grew up being able to choose what she wore.

She then moved back to Rome, New York. It was there that she met Albert Miller who was another physician. Just a year after graduating from school, Mary Walker was married to Albert Miller. At the wedding Walker wore trousers and a man’s coat instead of the typical wedding dress. Along with wearing trousers to her wedding, did not take her husband’s last name, instead keeping her own. The newly weds decided to open up their own medical practice in Rome, New York but because society wasn’t ready to accept a female physician the practice failed. The couple separated in 1859 and divorced ten years

On one of these “missions” in April 1864, Walker ran into a group of Confederate soldiers. She was imprisoned at Castle Thunder which was an old tobacco warehouse in Virginia. As a prisoner, Walker was given special privileges such as her own room and the ability to walk in the garden and the streets of Richmond. On August 12, 1864, a prisoner exchange occurred in which the Union Army traded prisoners from the Confederate Army to free Walker. After a successful trade, Mary spent the rest of the war continuing as assistant surgeon. On November 11, 1865 President Johnson signed a bill to present Mary Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious service. Her Medal of Honor citation stated, “She has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded, both in the field and hospitals” (Subject Guides: Women in Medicine and Science at Upstate: Mary Edwards Walker MD). In 1917, Mary Walker, along with 910 others, had her Medal of Honor revoked. Although her medal was revoked, Walker wore the medal for the rest of her life. In 1977, 60 years after her death, President Jimmy Carter reinstated her Medal of