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Congressional Medal of Honor - Dr. Mary Walkers Bible
Dr. Mary Walkers Bible
A crusader for womens equality, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker served as a surgeon for the Union army during the Civil War and was captured by the Confederates. She received this pocket bible from a Confederate chaplain, Reverend J. T. Carpenter, while in prison in Castle Thunder, June 22, 1864, in Richmond, Virginia. A year after the war, Walker became the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor. However, the medal was revoked in 1917 when Congress revised its standards to include only actual combat with the enemy. Six decades later, the womens movement sparked new interest in Walker's story. In 1974, Smithsonian curators collected this Bible and other objects from Walkers grandniece and supported a campaign to have her Medal of Honor restored. In 1977, Congress reinstated the award. Walker was the only woman to serve as a surgeon during the war.
Division of Social History, Political History
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Behring Center
Gift of Mrs. Jack Wilson
Facts | History | Links |Recipients | Civil War
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