Mary Edwards Walker

Surgeon, U.S. War Department

Before women could join the Army, Walker chose to volunteer for the Union at a hospital, organized the Women’s Relief Organization, and assisted families of the wounded. During her career, she served as a War Department surgeon and became a POW of the Confederate Army when they arrested her for spying. For her selfless service in a Confederate women's prison and orphan’s asylum, she was awarded the Medal of Honor. Later it was rescinded because she had not had “direct combat with an enemy” but was reinstated posthumously.

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