This is an I-Heart podcast.

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, a show where America is the star and the American people, and a very

special welcome to the folks in Portland listening on K-E-X. We're proud to have you as a member

of the Our American Stories family. Our next story comes to us from a man who's simply known as

the History Guide. His videos are

watched by hundreds of thousands of people of all ages on YouTube. The History Guy is also

heard here at our American Stories. Today, the History Guy remembers a truly extraordinary

Civil War heroine, Mary Edwards Walker. She was the only woman in United States history to be

awarded the Medal of Honor. Here's the History Guy. The Medal of Honor, the United States

highest award for valor, was established by the United States Army in 1862 to recognize those

soldiers who distinguished themselves by gallantry and

intrepidity in combat with an enemy of the United States. Since that time 3,459

medals of honor have been awarded, and only one has gone to a woman, Dr. Mary Edwards

Walker, and hers is a story worth remembering.

Mary Edwards Walker was born in 1832 in upstate New York, the youngest of seven children.

Her parents were farmers and free thinkers.

The free thought movement was a movement that challenged authority and tradition

and thought that truth should be derived from logic and reason, and it was that upbringing that

not only allowed her to escape traditional gender roles of her time, but to develop a fierce sense of independence and justice. Mary's parents were determined to give all of their children a good education,

and she studied at Falley Seminary in Fulton, New York.

She always had an interest in physiology and anatomy,

and so she worked as a teacher in order to earn enough money to be able to attend medical school, graduating

...