The American Civil War was the focal point of many firsts in our history. One of those firsts was the creation of the Medal of Honor. Amazingly, only one woman has been awarded the Medal of Honor and that was the only female surgeon serving the United States Army, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. 

 

This pioneering woman is the subject of the Baltimore Civil War Roundtable’s February meeting as Dr. Theresa Kaminski presents a lecture on her book; speaks on her book; Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Woman's Rights.

 

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 27, at 7:30 p.m. in the library of Hiss United Methodist Church, 8700 Harford Road, Parkville Md., 21234. (From the beltway (I-695) the church will be on your right. Pull into the upper parking lot-the lot just before the church building- and walk to the semi-circle at the front. Enter the first door on the right, go up the stairs to the second floor and turn left then right into the library (rm #208).

 

Theresa Kaminski, Ph.D. is a professor emerita of history from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. As an author, she specializes in writing about scrappy women in American history.

 

In 2020, Theresa published ; Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Woman's Rights . Her most recent book, Queen of the West: The Life and Times of Dale Evans, was released in April 2022. She is also the author of a trilogy of books about American women in the Philippine Islands, including Angels of the Underground. Theresa is currently working on a book about Jane Grant, a feminist, writer, and co-founder of The New Yorker magazine.

 

Remember, join the BCWRT as Dr. Theresa Kaminski presents; Dr. Mary Walker's Civil War: One Woman's Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Woman's Rights.  at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at Hiss United Methodist Church. If you can’t attend in person, register for the Zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/zk2m3YUkTmKZAGH2Fq92rw

 

   

Dr. Mary E. Walker                              Dr. Theresa Kaminski

Minutes

Our January meeting was our 497th.  Due to unfavorable weather conditions, the meeting was Zoom only.  There were 15 attendees.

 

Our speaker was Dr. Theresa Kaminski, a professor emerita of history from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  Dr. Kaminski spoke on her book entitled Dr. Mary Walker’s Civil War: One Woman’s Journey to the Medal of Honor and the Fight for Women’s Rights.  

 

Mary Walker (1832-1919) was the only female surgeon in the Union army.  Born in Oswego, New York, her parents were freethinkers and only nominally Christian.  Growing up, Walker was very aware of the women’s rights and abolitionist movements as well as reforms in public education, including increased opportunities for girls.  Additionally, she became attracted to the dress reform movement, which promoted the idea that the ability of women to dress as they pleased was important to their being equal members of society.

 

As a teenager, Walker decided to become a doctor.  She faced a serious obstacle–very few medical schools admitted women at the time.  However, she was accepted into Syracuse Medical College and attended from 1853 to 1855.  She was one of the top students in her class.  At the time, Syracuse was part of the homeopathic movement, which was reluctant to use pharmaceuticals and surgery.

 

In September 1861, five months after the outbreak of the Civil War, Walker went to Washington DC to meet with Secretary of War Simon Cameron.  She asked for a military commission to serve as a surgeon.  Cameron turned her down, essentially saying that women were simply not granted commissions in the U.S. Army.  Instead, he suggested that she look for a nursing position in a hospital.  She was accepted as a volunteer surgeon at Indiana Hospital, and served there from 1861 to 1862, while at the same time going around Washington looking for a commission.  She became known as a very helpful doctor.     

 

It wasn’t just men who Walker faced resistance from–some women opposed her as well.  Dorothea Dix, Superintendent of Army Nurses, didn’t approve of young and attractive nurses working for the army.  In 1862, Walker started to branch out from Washington to where Union armies were located.  However, she was never a battlefield surgeon or nurse.  Walker was at Gettysburg shortly after the battle, however, and that same month (July 1863) crossed paths with Dr. Esther “Hettie” Painter in Piedmont. Painter had decided to travel with her husband, who was part of the quartermaster corps.  They ran across a small farm operated by the Shacklett sisters.  Union soldiers were confiscating the sister’s property and were going to burn down their house as punishment for resisting.  Walker and the Painters successfully intervened on the sisters’ behalf.

 

In the fall of 1863, Walker met General George Thomas at a military hospital in Chattanooga. Thomas made her a contract assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland in March 1864.  At the behest of Thomas and Colonel Daniel McCook Jr. of the 52nd Ohio Infantry, she performed intelligence gathering.  One day, she was detained by a part of Confederate General D. H. Hill’s command and taken to Castle Thunder in Richmond.  From April to August 1864,

 

Walker was a POW.  Although released as part of a prisoner exchange, she suffered physical and emotional damage from being a prisoner.  From September 1864 to April 1865, Walker was head of the medical department at the female military prison in Louisville, Kentucky, and she worked at a refugee hospital in Clarksville, Tennessee from April to May 1865..  

 

After the war, President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Judge Advocate General (JAG) Joseph Holt decided to recognize Walker by awarding her the Medal of Honor, which she received in November 1865.  To this day, she remains the only woman to ever be awarded the medal.  During 1916-17, a military review board rescinded many medals–including hers–but she “disregarded” the decision.  And in 1977, the Army Board of Correction of Military Records decided to reinstate her medal.  

 

After the war, Walker struggled.  She received a small government pension but found it hard to practice medicine because of the health problems she had developed as a POW.  In addition to her medal, Walker has been commemorated in other ways–for example, a Mary Walker quarter currently exists, and a fort was named after her (though the fort has subsequently been renamed).