Nevertheless, she continued to wear her medal until her death two years later. In 1917 the Army changed its eligibility criteria for the honor and revoked the awards of 911 non-combatants, including Walker. On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson presented her with the Medal of Honor, making her the only woman to date to receive the decoration. Walker was later released as part of a prisoner exchange and returned to duty. Known to cross enemy lines in order to treat civilians, she may have been serving as a spy when Confederate troops captured her in the summer of 1864. Despite her training, she initially had to work as a nurse before becoming the Army’s first female surgeon. Only one woman has received the Medal of Honor, and her award was temporarily rescinded.Ī medical doctor who supported feminist and abolitionist causes, Mary Edwards Walker volunteered with the Union Army at the outbreak of the Civil War. It was only after his retirement that Medal of Honor supporters in Congress could introduce bills providing for the decoration. Scott, a respected commander despite being too feeble and corpulent to mount a horse in the waning years of his career, scoffed at the suggestion, saying it smacked of European tradition. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, proponents of a new award made their case to Winfield Scott, general-in-chief of the Union Army.
After the conflict, it fell into disuse, as did its successor, the Certificate of Merit, bestowed during the Mexican-American War.
history, known as the Badge of Military Merit. At first, the idea of a Medal of Honor was dismissed as too “European.”ĭuring the American Revolution, George Washington established the first combat decoration in U.S.
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