Last Friday, the Army renamed Fort A.P. Hill as Fort Walker. Dr. Mary Walker was a Civil War veteran who was the first woman to be awarded the Medal of Honor.
Walker was born in Oswego, New York in 1832 to Abolitionist parents. she was educated at Syracuse Medical College and graduated in 1855. In 1861, Walker tried to join the Union Army’s medical corps but she was turned away. Instead, she volunteered without pay at the U.S. Patent Office Hospital in Washington. After a number of attempts to join the medical corps, the army finally accepted her as a “Contract Acting Assistant Surgeon (civilian).” Throughout this time Walker refused to wear traditional women’s clothes, preferring men’s clothes because they were more efficient.
In 1864, Walker was captured by Confederates and she was imprisoned for four month. After her release, she became the assistant surgeon of the Ohio 52nd Infantry. After the war, she advocated for suffrage for women.
A.P. Hill was a Major General in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
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