Mary Edwards Walker
In January 1992 I
was asked by the Shaw AFB Public Affairs Unit to speak before a group of
Professional Women for their monthly luncheon. Here is the story I told to the
ladies that day, a story that stay fresh in my mind to this very day.
A few years
ago I was given an opportunity to travel to the pentagon in Washington, D.C. as
part of a delegation from Shaw AFB. We were sent to receive the highest award
bestowed by the Department of Defense to any military maintenance unit, “The
Phoenix Award.” The Pentagon is a
Massive complex housing some of America’s Greatest Historic Treasures and as
part of our visit we were to receive a guided tour of this massive facility. I
remember the tour well, traveling up endless corridors filled with military paintings
of historic figures and glorious battles. Our tour guide, a young marine
Corporal, spouted out facts and figures like an automatic weapon firing countless
rounds one after another. She was loud as to be heard over the routine noise of
business being conducted and she was very professional. The Corporal was well
equipped for the job and looked especially good in her Marine Uniform. I did note that as my mother would say, she
had on sensible shoes, ready to walk many miles every day. It seemed to me that
she was so accustomed to giving this tour that she could have given it in her
sleep, but it seemed to lack any emotion or feeling, just facts and figures,
and artifacts. It wasn’t long after thinking this that I was proven wrong. The
last stop on the tour was the Hall of Medals; here all the names and deeds of
the recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor are recorded in painting and
displays. As we approached the Corporals voice changed, it became mellow and
soft , almost reverent. She asked a simple
question, “How many of you know the name of the only female recipient of the Congressional
Medal of Honor?” The members of the tour looked at each other puzzled and we
all seemed to shrug our shoulders at the same time. As far as we knew no woman
had ever been bestowed with the greatest honor our country can bestow on a
military professional. Our puzzled looks didn’t surprise the Corporal; she had
obviously seen this look on the faces of many visitors to this shrine. She then
proceeded to tell us the story of Mary Edwards Walker the only woman recipient
of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Mary Edwards
Walker always stood out in a crowd, a woman small in stature but big of
heart. She had graduated from Syracuse
Medical College in 1855 becoming one of the first woman physicians in the
country this was an unheard of accomplishment in those days. She preferred
pants even at her own wedding and was a staunch supporter and pioneer of woman’s
rights. In 1861 at the outbreak of the
civil war and at age 29 she applied for a commission as a U.S. Army Surgeon and
was flatly turned down. The reason for her rejection was obvious in those days
but none-the-less devastating for Mary. She was rejected because she was a
woman. Disappointed but undeterred she worked as a volunteered at Washington
Hospital until November 1862 when she presented herself at the Virginia headquarters
of Major General Ambrose Burnside and was taken on as a Field Surgeon but only
on a voluntary basis. Dr. Walker spent the next two years on the front lines in
the uniform of a Union Officer wearing the green sash of a surgeon and sporting
a large feather plume from her small union cap. She spent every day caring for
the wounded and dying of both union and confederate soldiers. In the midst of a battle she could be found dodging
bullets and performing amputations amid the blood and carnage of America’s
battles fields. She was present and tended to the wounded and dying on the
battles of Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga to name a few. After two years of constant service on the
battle field she reapplied for a commission and was told because she was a
woman she was “utterly unqualified to become an army medical officer.”
Undaunted but disappointed she continued in her voluntary work on the battle
field. After much perseverance and determination she found one man, Major
General George Thomas, who appointed her as a civilian Surgeon in the 52nd
Ohio Infantry and pay her for her services. A month after her appointment she
was tending wounded on the front lines when the order came to pull back. She refused to leave the soldiers screaming
for help and stayed on to care for the wounded and dying. She was captured by
the enemy and taken to Richmond Prison as a prisoner of war. She remained at Richmond Prison tending to the
sick and injured until she was traded for a Confederate Officer. It is said
that Mary always took great pride in what she considered to be a man-for-man
swap. Upon her release Mary continued her work and even went on spying missions
behind enemy lines. Information she gathered was credited with saving Major
General William T. Sherman’s forces from serious reverse and certain defeat. Mary was eventually removed from the front
lines and sent to work out the rest of the war at Louisville woman’s prison and
a Tennessee Orphan’s asylum. After the war Mary was released from government
service but continued to lobby for a commission in the army. The Secretary of War at the time, Mr.
Stanton, refused her request time after time and considered Mary a pest.
President Andrew Johnson was asked about the injustice which was being done to
Mary and he ordered an investigation of the facts. As the truth came to light it was determined
that for her heroic deeds in the face of the enemy and for great service to her
country she should be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Finally in
January 1866 President Andrew Jackson presented her with the Medal, yet still
refused her the commission she had has always sought. After the war Mary dedicated herself to the
woman’s rights movement. She supported
such controversial issues of the day, like woman wearing pants, smoking, and
having the right to vote. She was arrested many times for wearing pants in
public. At one trial she asserted her right saying, “Sir, I have the right to
dress as I please in a free America on whose tented fields I have served for
four years in the cause of human justice.” The judge dismissed the charges against
her and ordered that the police never again arrest her for wearing pants. Mary had many enemies who lobbied hard to
have her medal taken away. In 1916 her enemies persuaded the Congress to alter
the Medal of Honor Standards in such a way that Mary and other decorated soldiers
were no longer eligible to wear the medal.
An Army Board of Review promptly revoked her medal making it a crime for
her to wear. They even sent a detail of
mounted officers to retrieve her medal. The Young Calvary officer who was
placed in charge of this detail met Mary face-to-face on the porch of her home
and demanded the return of the medal. It is said that Mary told the young
officer that she had lost he medal and could not find it. The officer scoffed, “Only
a woman could lose an item of such value.” And he turned and rode off with the
detail of soldiers following behind.
Mary spent the rest of her life protesting this move and claiming her
right to wear the medal. It is said that she was often seen wearing the medal
at public appearances. Mary died in February 1919 at the age of 86.
Mary’s descendents
continued her fight for justice and sixty years after her death the army
restored Mary Edwards Congressional Medal of Honor. President Jimmy Carter, during a ceremony at
the White House, presented Mary’s granddaughter with a new minted Medal of
Honor. Upon presenting the medal the President remarked that he had heard that
Mary had lost the original medal. Mary’s granddaughter, without a moment’s
hesitation, reached into her purse and removed a tattered box containing the
original medal. You see, Mary could
never bring herself to give up what she truly believed, and was ultimately
proven, that she earned in the heroic service of her country.
With the
completion of the story the young Corporal turned with the slight glint of a
tear in her eye and led us down another nameless corridor and left us all just
a little more knowledgeable about the contributions of an American Hero.
