Who Is Thomas Walker Considered A Surgeon In The 1800's

In the 1800’s, women’s rights, dress reform and suffrage had begun to really become a global issue. Mary Edwards Walker was a women’s right activist and several other things including, a nurse and later a surgeon in the Civil War, a writer, an abolitionist and a feminist. During her lifetime, she accomplished many extraordinary achievements, including being awarded The Congressional Medal of Honor for her service during the war. She was the first and only woman as of 2015 to have been awarded this Medal of Honor.
Mary Edwards Walker was born on November 26th, 1832 and raised in Oswego, New York. She was one of five children and was encouraged by her parents become a teacher, but once a teen she decided to go to Syracuse Medical School. She
was educated first at Falley Seminary in Fulton, New York but then she had a desire for helping others and having a position in the medical field. Walker studied to pursue a career in medicine. Syracuse was one of the few that accepted women in schools at this time. In the 1850’s men were primarily the only ones who entered a field like such. ("Mary Walker Biography Women's Rights Activist, Nurse, Doctor, Surgeon (1832–1919)." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television.) After graduating in 1885, being the only woman in her class, Walker had her Doctor of Medicine degree. Albert Miller, a fellow classmate asked for her hand in marriage and A few months later they started a private practice. The couple founded the private practice together for their community, but eventually business did not go well for the two.
Although Walker was known for her very enthusiastic yet risky actions, a lot of them came with consequences and effects she did not have in mind. Her practice she set up with her husband Albert Miller at the time, soon failed due to the society not believing or supporting a woman doctor. Then it was her marriage in 1859, Walker and Miller divorced after ten years says the Encyclopedia of World Biography, (2003).
Soon after her failed attempt at a private practice, she traveled to Washington hoping to persuade the government to allow her to serve as a surgeon in the U.S Army. When denied, Walker would volunteer at the Patent Office Hospital in Washington, D.C. Then soon after she was tired of the volunteer work, Mary Edwards Walker went to New York Hygeio-Therapeutic College to earn a degree in New York. Once warfare began to rise, she returned to volunteering in 1862. ("MedalOfHonor." CMOHS.org, Thomas G. Kelly)
In 1863, Walker went to Tennessee and became assistant surgeon for the Army of Cumberland, led by General George H.
Thomas, who was a principal commander of the Civil War. Soon after being appointed the position she wanted, Walker was captured by the Confederate Army and help captive for several months. Once released, she returned to Washington D.C and the government provided her with a contract to officially become the “acting assistant surgeon with the Ohio 52nd infantry” ("Mary Walker Biography Women's Rights Activist, Nurse, Doctor, Surgeon (1832–1919)." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television)
After becoming the acting assistant surgeon, Walker went on to help women prisoners in Kentucky and orphanages in Tennessee. Which soon after that accomplishment, President Andrew Jackson signed a citation that awarded Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for her war effort and dedication. In 1917, unfortunately the criteria for the Medal of Honor changed and her award was stripped away but she continued to wear it.
The recognition she was awarded with made her feel very well appreciated and continued to participate and gear up other movements. Walker participated in movements for women, children, reform movements, and many others. Her dress reform movement was well noticed when she began to dress more
masculine.
Walker would continuously dress in men’s clothing to prove her point in the fact that women should not have to be dressed up in corsets and heavy hoop skirts. In her attempts at proving her point, she was arrested several times due to the outbursts and “disruption of the peace”. Although many knew of Walker not because she was a hero but more for being bizarre and unconventional.
Mary Edwards Walker continued wearing her award until the day she died in her home on February 21st, 1919, two years the award criteria was changed. Then in 1977, nearly 60 years after Walker’s death, the award was reinstated by President Jimmy Carter. (Greenblatt, Ellen. "Mary Edwards Walker Is Awarded the Medal of Honor.")
Despite the society’s controversy of Mary Edward Walker’s career and political views, she was proud of her accomplishments and what she had done with her life.
She concluded the following in 1897, "I am the original new woman...Why, before Lucy Stone, Mrs. Bloomer, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were—before they were, I am. In the early '40's, when they began their work in dress reform, I was already wearing pants...I have made it possible for the bicycle girl to wear the abbreviated skirt, and I have prepared the way for the girl in knickerbockers." (Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D. "Changing the Face of Medicine | Dr. Mary Edwards Walker." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine.
Web.)