In April 1864, a Union army surgeon was captured by Confederate soldiers and marched to Castle Thunder prison in Richmond, Virginia. Her name was Dr. Mary Walker, and the army had spent years refusing to take her seriously as a doctor.
Born in 1832 on a farm in Oswego, New York, to abolitionist parents, she graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855 as the only woman in her class. When the Civil War began, she tried to join the Union army as a surgeon and was turned away. She volunteered anyway, working unpaid, and eventually became an assistant surgeon. She treated wounded soldiers near the front lines and crossed enemy lines to care for civilians as well.
After the war, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill awarding her the Medal of Honor, and she remains the only woman ever to receive it. In 1917, Congress changed the eligibility rules and rescinded the medal along with 910 others. She refused to give it back and wore it until she died in 1919. It was restored in 1977.
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