Iowa Time Machine ⏰: On November 26, 1832, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker was born. The first and only female recipient of the Medal of Honor during the Civil War, the barrier-breaking medical professional briefly attended Bowen Collegiate Institute in Hopkinton, Iowa.
Raised in New York, Mary Edwards Walker taught at a school in Minetto, New York, eventually earning enough money to pay her way through Syracuse Medical College, where she graduated with honors as a medical doctor in 1855, the only woman in her class. She married a fellow medical school student, Albert Miller, wore a short skirt with trousers underneath, refused to include "obey" in her vows, and retained her last name, all characteristic of her obstinate nonconformity. The couple later divorced before she headed west to enroll at Lennox College.
Walker briefly attended Bowen Collegiate Institute (later named Lenox College) in Hopkinton, Iowa, in 1860, until she was suspended for refusing to resign from the school's debating society, which until she joined had been all male. Walker volunteered at the outbreak of the American Civil War as a surgeon – first for the Army, but was rejected because she was a woman (despite having kept a private practice for many years). She was offered the role of a nurse but declined and chose to volunteer as a surgeon for the Union Army as a civilian. The U.S. Army had no female surgeons, and at first, she was allowed to practice only as a nurse. In September 1863, she was employed as a "Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian)" by the Army of the Cumberland, becoming the first female surgeon employed by the U.S. Army Surgeon.
On April 10, 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops and arrested as a spy just after she finished helping a Confederate doctor perform an amputation. She was sent to Castle Thunder in Richmond, Virginia, and remained there until August 12, 1864, when she was released as part of a prisoner exchange. After the war, she was approved for the Medal of Honor for her efforts to treat the wounded in battle and across enemy lines during the Civil War. Notably, the award was not expressly given for gallantry in action at that time and, in fact, was the only military decoration during the Civil War. Walker is the only woman to receive the medal and one of only eight civilians to receive it. #IowaOTD #IowaHistoryDaily #IowaHistoryCalendar
