Mary Walker, American Cross-Dresser and Physician
Mary Edwards Walker (November 26, 1832 - February 21, 1919) was an American feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, alleged spy, prisoner of war and surgeon. Prior to the American Civil War she earned her medical degree, married and started a medical practice. The practice didn't do well and she volunteered with the Union Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War and served as a surgeon. She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, Virginia until released in a prisoner exchange. After the war she was approved for the highest United States Armed Forces decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor, for her efforts during the Civil War. She is the only woman to receive the medal. After the war, she became a writer and lecturer, supporting such issues as health care, temperance, women's rights and dress reform for women. She was frequently arrested for wearing masculine styled clothing and insisted on her right to wear clothing that she thought appropriate. She died in 1919, from natural causes at the age of 86, just one year before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution which guaranteed women the right to vote. Photographed by John Holyland 1860-70.
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