One Feisty & Freethinking Woman!

In my previous post of Pioneering Women of Civil War America (Fifth Installment) on Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, I promised that my next pioneering woman would be a savvy, freethinking, and feisty one! Let me now present to you:

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

I will address her early years first because it paints her a colorful picture and evidences her motivations for future endeavors.

I Believe Mary’s Greatest Influence Rooted from Her Broad-Minded Parents, Who:

Made their children share in men’s and women’s work around the farm in Oswego, New York, and explore and challenge the rules and restrictions of differing religious dogma.

Assured their six daughters and one son were equally educated.

Sent Mary and their other daughters for higher education where the ideals of modern social reform further developed Mary’s determination to battle the injustices of traditional feminine standards.

Inspired Mary, especially her self-taught medically savvy father, to seek a medical degree.

Forbade their daughters from dressing in corsets and other tight clothing; thus began Mary’s interpretation of her wardrobe that she would maintain throughout her life.

In fact, Mary claims to have started the revolution in women’s dress reform as through her own words:

“I am the original new woman. Why, before Lucy Stone, Mrs. Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Susan B. Anthony were—before they were, I am. In the early ’40s, when they began their work in dress reform, I was already wearing pants…I have made it possible for the bicycle girl to wear the abbreviated skirt, and I have prepared the way for the girl in knickerbockers.”

So, early on, Mary understood that in order to achieve her professional goals, which cut through the male sphere, she would have to dress and act as a man. She was certainly known to cuss worse than one!

Mary’s Very Impressive Resume Includes:

She was probably amongst the top five women to graduate with a medical degree in the United States at a time when the vast majority of colleges prohibited women’s attendance.

She was probably the first woman in the United States to earn two medical degrees from nationally recognized medical schools:

1855 Syracuse Medical College, which eventually (1992) became SUNY Upstate Medical University at Syracuse, New York.

1862 NY Hygeia Therapeutic College. This was a source of her contention during her work in the Union army hospitals, where she fought against the amputation of limbs that could be preserved to help maintain the self-respect and independence of the afflicted and their productivity in society versus making them dependent upon it. However, the federal government supported amputation because it was quicker, easier, and cheaper. We all well know how “taxing” on society that turned out to be!

She was the first woman to serve as a United States army surgeon. After the war, she said:

“Let the generations know that women in uniform also guaranteed their freedom.”

She is the first and only woman as of this day in 2021, to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for her army service. (President Andrew Johnson signed the bill, issuing it to her in November 1865).

In her post-war suffragist lectures, she spouted:

“You (men) are not our protectors. If you were, who would there be to protect us from?”

Two Amusing Anecdotes to Show Mary’s Nonconformity and Obstinacy:

The First:

In 1855, post-graduation from Syracuse Medical College, she married a feminist-minded classmate in her men’s coat, trousers, top hat, and boots. During the consummation of their nuptials, she refused to utter the word “obey” and, afterward, to take his name.

The Second:

In 1917, when she was eighty-five years old, the federal government rescinded 911 medals awarded for services not performed under fire. Although she faced a misdemeanor charge, she refused to yield it and said to the retracting agent:

“You can have it over my dead body!” (I imagine a heaping helping of cussing accompanied this).

Anyway, Mary wore her medal with pride to her speaking engagements up until her death two years later. It wasn’t until 1977 that President Jimmy Carter restored her medal.

Mary’s Legacy is Pervasive:

In World War II, the United States named a Liberty ship “SS Mary Walker.”

In 1982, in the 150^th year of Mary’s birth (1932), the U.S. Postal Service commemorated a twenty-cent stamp of her likeness.

In 1997, Mary was honored in the dedication of the Women in Military Service for America Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia (pictured below). There is a wealth of knowledge about this monument at this link for Wikipedia.

Medical and army facilities named in Mary’s honor are located in Oswego, New York, Washington, D.C., and Walker, Michigan.

In 2016, the Women in Surgery Committee under the auspices of the American College of Surgeons created the “Mary Edwards Walker Inspiring Women in Surgery Award,” which recognizes significant contributions to the advancement of women in the discipline.

By the way, my primary fictional character, Jana Brady, runs into Dr. Mary Walker twice in big ways in Sweet Glory (Book 1 of Glory: A Civil War Series) during Jana’s escapades as Union cavalryman Johnnie Brodie of the Tenth New York Volunteer Cavalry Regiment!

On that note, I will end here with the hopes that you have enjoyed my blog and have found Dr. Mary Edwards Walker every bit as freethinking and feisty as I have! To read a brief but interesting article about her by doctors of the American College of Surgeons, go to: Mary Edwards Walker: Trailblazing feminist, surgeon, and war veteran. Or, better yet, whet your appetite for more about this pioneering woman, specifically as regards her wartime service, through this visual presentation at my Civil War Women Website.

Speaking of pioneering women making monstrous waves in the medical world…

Stay tuned for the next installment!