Ask your friends and family to choose from Civil War, World War I, World War II, and the Iraq War.I
In 1855, Mary Edwards Walker earned her medical degree at Syracuse Medical College in New York. She was also an Abolitionist, and attempted to join the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War, but was denied.
She served as a surgeon at a temporary hospital in Washington D.C. before being hired by union forces and assigned to The Army of the Cumberland, and later the 52 Ohio Infantry, becoming the first female surgeon in the US Army. She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians, but was arrested as an enemy spy. She was sent as a Prisoner of War to Richmond, where she was held until a Prisoner Exchange took place.
She was approved for the Medal of Honor shortly after the war. Notably, the award was not expressly given for gallantry; and in fact was the only military decoration during the Civil War. Walker is only one of eight civilians to receive the Medal. In 1917, 900 recipients, including Walker, had their names deleted from the Army Medal of Honor Roll, but she proudly retained possession of her Medal for the rest of her life. She died in 1919, and her name was restored to Medal of Honor Roll in 1977.
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