Has A Woman Ever Received The Medal Of Honor?

Many people ask, “Has a woman ever received the Medal of Honor?”

The answer is yes. One woman, of the 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients, was a woman.

Read the amazing story of Mary Edwards Walker, the only woman to have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Who Was Mary Edwards Walker?

Mary Edwards Walker was born in 1832 in Oswego, N.Y., the youngest of seven children. Prior to the American Civil War, Walker earned her medical degree from Syracuse Medical College, and was, of course, the only female in her class.

She got married and started a medical practice, neither of which lasted.

The practice failed, reportedly, because patients did not want to see a female physician, and the marriage due to her husband’s infidelity.

She left them both in 1859.

When the Civil War broke out, Dr. Mary Walker petitioned the government to grant her a commission as a Union Army surgeon, which was said to have been rejected with “considerable verbosity.”

She then resorted to volunteering in various hospitals.

An extraordinary woman who was way ahead of her time, Dr. Walker did not like wearing dresses.

Walker firmly believed that pants were more comfortable, hygienic, and enabled better mobility while performing her duties.

After experimenting, she found that a mid-length skirt over trousers was the most appropriate attire for her occupation.

Learn more about important figures that changed the course of history:
Davy Crockett’s Hompesun Wit and Wisdom.

Civil War History of Dr. Mary Walker

Dr. Walker continued to volunteer in hospitals during the Civil War. In January of 1864, she made a second petition for a formal position, this time directly to President Lincoln.

Thought reluctant, Lincoln granted her request, provided that the men of the Medical Department consented. Dr. Walker then traveled to Chattanooga, Tennessee in March 1864, and reported for duty to General George Thomas, commander of the Army of the Cumberland.

Dr. Walker met with considerable abuse over her persistent demands to be made a surgeon.

Stories of affairs and other sordid activities followed her, manufactured by those who did not wish to serve with a female doctor.

Dr. Walker Captured By confederates

Dr. Walker did not allow the constant maltreatment to deter her, and neither did she hesitate to care for the wounded of both sides.

Unfortunately, this led to her capture by Confederate forces on April 10, 1864, after she stopped to help a Confederate doctor perform an amputation.

Labeled as a spy because she was dressed in men’s attire, she spent four months in a Confederate prison before being exchanged for another surgeon.

While she was imprisoned, she was given clothes that were more “becoming of her sex,” but refused to wear them.

After the war, Walker wrote and lectured on behalf of temperance, women’s rights, health care, and dress reform. She often wore men’s clothing and was arrested several times for impersonating a man. She replied of her attire:

“I don’t wear men’s clothes. I wear my own clothes.”

At one trial for just such an arrest, she asserted her right to, “Dress as I please in free America on whose tented fields I have served for four years in the cause of human freedom.”

The judge dismissed the case and ordered the police never to arrest Dr. Walker on that charge again.

She left the courtroom to hearty applause.

For more on Civil War medicine, read about the Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Md.

Dr. Mary Walker Receives The Medal Of Honor

And now, for the answer to the question: Did a woman ever receive the Medal of Honor?

Shortly after the end of the war, Walker became the first woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor, and is said to have worn it every day for the rest of her life.

In 1919, however, the Board of Medals revoked her award and the awards of 910 other individuals.

The eighty-seven-year old physician said, “You can have it over my dead body.” (The medals did not have to be returned; the 911 names were simply deleted from the official list of recipients.)

She died six days later, a year before the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution guaranteed women the right to vote. She was buried in her black suit rather than a dress.

The Medal was restored posthumously in 1977.

What Is The Medal of Honor?

The Medal of Honor was established by President Abraham Lincoln in 1861 as the nation’s highest recognition of valor in combat.

Earned through every major conflict in our nation’s history since the Civil War, the Medal of Honor commemorates those who were willing to risk their lives to protect and serve our country.

New Medal of Honor Museum Underway

A new Medal of Honor Museum is currently being built in Arlington, TX, and is expected to be completed in 2024.

This Museum will give Americans the opportunity to gather, learn and pay tribute to the bravest heroes of the USA in a state-of-the-art facility.

It’s exciting to know that recipient stories of courage and valor will be told, including the one of Mary Walker, the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor.

The Museum will focus on inspiring current and future generations to discover and develop the shared values inherent in every Medal of Honor recipient.

These are: Courage and Sacrifice, Commitment and Integrity, and Citizenship and Patriotism.

Located in the heart of the Entertainment District in Arlington, TX, the Museum is considered neither a war memorial nor a military museum.

Rather the National Medal of Honor Museum is being designed to take visitors on a journey through the life stories of ordinary people who made extraordinary choices that went above and beyond the call of duty.

Honoring Heroes At the Medal of Honor Museum

The  National Medal of Honor Museum will highlight the values and valor of those who earned the distinguished Medal of Honor.

By telling the stories of Medal of Honor recipients, the Museum will reveal that these heroes who were once considered ordinary children, parents, neighbors and friends.

It was not their circumstances that called them to sacrifice, but their choices.

The Medal of Honor recipients truly represent the best in all of American citizenship.

If you’d like to read about the recipients, the Museum has a database on their website listing of the Medal of Honor Recipients.

No longer will people have to wonder, “Has a woman ever received the Medal of Honor?”

The museum will honor Mary Edwards Walker, the only female Medal of Honor recipient and tell the complete story of her contributions, along with all of the other Medal of Honor recipients.

Quick Facts About The National Medal of Honor Museum

• The Medal of Honor Museum footprint will encompass more than 100,000 square feet on five acres of waterfront in Arlington, Texas.
• The Museum has 31,000 square feet of Exhibition Galleries and as space to serve as a venue for meetings, symposiums, memorials and ceremonies.
• The Museum will serve as Headquarters of the National Medal of Honor Institute, an organization that addresses our nation’s character gap and fills it by focusing on the values and valor of the Medal of Honor and all who have earned it.