Originally published Breadcrumbs Blogger post 7/14/2013
A revised and expanded version of this story appears in
Snapshots and Short Notes, Kenneth Wilson, Univ. of North Texas Press, 2020.
This impromptu photograph of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, circa 1912, was almost certainly snapped without her consent on a sidewalk in New York, and no doubt Dr. Walker had very sharp words for the photographer. Despite the circumstances of its creation, the photo gives us a candid look at one of the more intriguing characters in American History. The image is printed on a real photo postcard and discourteously titled “Dr. Mary Walker, The Only Self Made Man in America.”
You will note that Dr. Walker is dressed in trousers and a top hat. When this photograph was taken, that had been her chosen mode of dress for many years. Born in Oswego, New York, in 1832 to very progressive or “free-thinker” parents who believed strongly in education and equality for women, Mary became an early advocate for women’s rights and dress reform, and she rejected the tight-fitting, restrictive women’s clothing of the day.
Mary Walker's story goes well beyond her choice of attire. She was a physician, abolitionist, women's rights activist, and Civil War surgeon. She was the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army and the only female recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, the United States’ highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.
Walker graduated from medical school in 1855 at age 23, when very few women in the country were medical doctors. She married and began a medical practice; however, the marriage ended in divorce, and in 1861, when the Civil War broke out, Walker volunteered her services as a physician to the Union Army. The army refused her a commission or a salaried position because of her gender. Despite this rejection, Walker volunteered her services and worked long, arduous, unpaid hours, first as a nurse and later as a field surgeon in tent hospitals near the battlefront. She treated wounded soldiers at the First Battle of Bull Run in 1861 and later that year at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
Walker continued requesting an official posting as a surgeon, but the army refused her a commission. Though officially a nurse, she wore the green sash of an army physician as she worked alongside the male doctors. A New York Tribune article written about Dr. Walker in 1862 included this paragraph:
Dressed in male habiliments… she carries herself amid the camp with a jaunty air of dignity well calculated to receive the sincere respect of the soldiers… She can amputate a limb with the skill of an old surgeon and administer medicine equally as well. Strange to say that, although she has frequently applied for a permanent position in the medical corps, she has never been formally assigned to any particular duty.
In response to her many requests for a position as a physician, President Lincoln sent a letter to Dr. Walker in 1864, which read in part:
The Medical Department of the army is an organized system in the hands of men supposed to be learned in that profession and I am sure it would injure the service for me, with strong hand, to thrust among them anyone, male or female, against their consent.
In September of 1863, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Walker treated the wounded after the Battle of Chickamauga, where Assistant Surgeon General Robert Wood observed her work and later assigned Walker the rank of Acting Assistant Surgeon. During these years, Walker continued to face the disapproval of many of the male physicians who had little respect for her opinions, including her suggestion that many of the battlefield amputations were unnecessary. Despite these conflicts, there is ample evidence that many physicians and generals in the field were grateful for her assistance in treating large numbers of wounded.
In 1862, Walker wrote to the War Department, requesting employment with the Secret Service as a Union spy, but this offer was declined. There is some speculation that, subsequently, she actually worked as a spy in Confederate territory, but the validity of those claims is apparently in question.
As an acting assistant surgeon to the 52nd Ohio Volunteers in 1864, Walker managed a hospital for women prisoners and an orphanage. Part of her responsibility included caring for the surrounding civilian population, and she often crossed enemy lines in performing this duty. On one of these excursions, Walker was captured and arrested as a spy by Confederate troops and imprisoned at the notoriously brutal Castle Thunder Prison in Richmond, Virginia, until her release later that year as part of a prisoner exchange. After her release from prison, Walker cared for Confederate women prisoners and an orphan asylum in Louisville, Kentucky.
Walker modified her uniforms during military service to include trousers and a knee-length tunic. She faced adverse reactions from male physicians and female patients, who were offended by her manner of dress and believed that women should not be doctors.
After the Civil War, Congress awarded Walker the Congressional Medal of Honor for meritorious service. However, in 1917, in an unfortunate twist of fate, Congress rescinded Walker’s medal and those of 910 other recipients, including "Buffalo Bill" Cody, when the Medal of Honor standards were revised to include only awards for actual combat. Despite this ruling, Walker wore the medal proudly until her death in 1919. In 1977, congress restored Walker's medal posthumously, citing her "distinguished gallantry, self-sacrifice, patriotism, dedication and unflinching loyalty to her country, despite the apparent discrimination because of her sex."
Walker continued to work and lecture for women’s rights and dress reform well into her later years. In September 1866, she helped Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone organize the Women’s Suffrage Association for Ohio. She was also a powerful spokesperson for the Temperance Movement and was quite outspoken on the evils of sexual activity beyond the act of procreation. Walker attempted to vote in 1872 and continued to fight for the right of all women to vote and the abolishment of slavery. She campaigned for a U.S. Senate seat in 1890 and became a well-known figure of her time, easily recognized by her formal attire, including a winged collar and top hat. Unfortunately, Walker was often ridiculed for this manner of dress and even harassed by children on the street.
Dr. Mary Walker died in Oswego, New York, at 86. During WWII, a Liberty ship, the SS Mary Walker, was named for her, and in 1982, the US Postal Service issued a 20¢ stamp honoring Dr. Walker. In 2012, a statue of her likeness was erected in Oswego. The bronze figure depicts young Dr. Walker wearing trousers under her uniform skirt and proudly wearing the Medal of Honor. A quote from Walker is inscribed on the lectern that accompanies the statue:
“I have got to die before people will know who I am and what I have done. It is a shame that people who lead reforms in this world are not appreciated until after they are dead; then the world pays its tributes.”
Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was a dynamic figure with unyielding views on many subjects. She was undoubtedly eccentric and perhaps complex and antagonistic. Still, she was a person of fervent convictions who fought tirelessly for the causes she believed in–abolishing slavery and improving medical treatment, education, and women's rights. You might disagree about her views on temperance, but in her honor, let’s raise a glass of a non-alcoholic beverage and proclaim, “Here’s to Mary Edwards Walker, a vigorous and genuine American hero!”
9/20/2022 Addendum:
From “A History Lesson for Trump: Transgender Soldiers Served in the Civil War” by Steve Hendrix, Washington Post, August 25, 2017:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/07/26/a-history-lesson-for-trump-transgender-soldiers-served-in-the-civil-war/
Many cross-dressers and gender defiers have served in the U.S. military since its earliest days. In fact, cross-dressing soldiers have been in the ranks of armies at least as far back as Joan of Arc, the 15th-century military genius who was burned at the stake for heresies that included wearing a man’s uniform.
During the American Civil War, boys just barely past puberty served in both armies, and the smooth face of a female impostor could easily have passed without remark.
“Researchers at the National Archives have found evidence that at least 250 women dressed as men to fight in the 1860s, some motivated by ideology, some by a taste for adventure, and some by the need for a job. Most of those who survived presumably returned to their lives as women, but others continued to live as men after the war.”
