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Part of the American
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Doctor Mary E. Walker 1832 ~ 1919
Doctor Mary E. Waker
Because of her determination to wear
male attire, Doctor Mary Walker has been made the subject of
abuse and ridicule by people of narrow minds. The fact that she
persists in wearing the attire in which she did a man's service
in the army blinds the thoughtless to her great achievements and
to her right to justice from our government It should be
remembered that she is the only woman in the world who was an
assistant army surgeon; that she was the first woman officer
ever exchanged as a prisoner of war for a man of her rank, and
that she is the only woman who has received the Medal of Honor
from Congress and a testimonial from the President of the United
States.
She belongs to a family of marked mental traits and was as a
child distinguished for her strength of mind and her decision of
character and grew up an independent young woman, attending
medical college in Syracuse, New York, and New York City. When
the Civil War broke out she left her practice and went to the
front and served the Union army in a way that in any other
country would have caused her to be recognized as a heroine of
the nation. Of all the women who participated in the scenes of
the war, Doctor Walker was certainly among the most conspicuous
for bravery and for self-forgetfulness. She often spent her own
money and she often went where shot and shell were flying to aid
the wounded soldiers. Her bravery and services in the field were
rewarded by a medal of honor, and she draws a pension from the
Government of exactly eight dollars and fifty cents a month, a
half pension of her rank, in spite of the fact that she really
deserves the highest recognition of the Government and the
public for her patriotic services in the army.
Doctor Walker has always been prominent and active in the
women's suffrage and other reform movements. She was among the
first women who attempted to vote and did vote, who went to
Congress in behalf of women's suffrage and who made franchise
speeches in Washington. In 1866-1867 she was in Europe and
directed and influenced ten thousand woman to vote in the fall
of 1869, but her public activities were practically ended by an
injury caused by slipping and falling, and which resulted in
lameness. She retired to the old family homestead in Oswego
County, New York, her last known residence.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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