Welcome to BrainStuff, a production of I Heart Radio.

Hey Brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum here.

In the 159 year history of the Medal of Honor, the United States highest military

award for valor in combat. More than 3,500 people have received the prestigious

prize. Only one of them so far has been a woman. Mary Edwards Walker.

Born in Oswego, New York in 1832, Walker has achieved legendary status as a pioneering surgeon, women's rights advocate, and abolitionist,

who was also the first female U.S. Army surgeon during the Civil War.

The Walker was the fifth daughter born to Dr. Alva and Vesta Whitcomb Walker, abolitionists who encouraged

their girls to be free thinkers. Rather than conformed to the societal and style norms of the era,

Walker eschewed skirts and corsets and preferred

bloomer pants. But her independent ideas weren't confined to fashion,

although later media reports couldn't seem to stop obsessing about her wardrobe.

Despite the fact that women were discouraged from entering the traditionally male medical field,

Walker knew she wanted to be a doctor and enrolled at Syracuse Medical College, now known as Upstate Medical University,

graduating in 1855 with a doctor of medicine degree.

She was only the second woman to ever graduate from the school after Elizabeth Blackwell.

Walker soon started a private practice in Columbus, Ohio, before returning to New York,

where she married fellow physician Albert Miller.

A few years later the Civil War erupted.

Soon after the war broke out in 1861, Walker tried to join the Union's efforts as a surgeon

in Washington, D.C., but was turned away because she

was a woman.

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