Shouldn't The Only Woman To Have Received Medal of Honor Be On $10 Bill

On Wednesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said a woman will be featured on a redesigned $10 bill in 2020 -- the 100th anniversary of the Constitution's 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.

Can't think of anyone to be on the $10 bill than the only woman ever to have received the Medal of Honor. Bet you didn't know that happened but it did!

Mary Edwards Walker (November 26, 1832 – February 21, 1919) was an American feminist, abolitionist, prohibitionist, alleged spy, prisoner of war and surgeon.

Born-November 26, 1832
Oswego, New York, U.S.
Died-February 21, 1919 (aged 86)
Oswego, New York, U.S.
Cause of death-Natural causes
Resting place-Rural cemetery
Oswego, New York, U.S.
Nationality-American
Education-Falley Seminary (1850-1852)
Syracuse Medical College (1853-1855)
Hygeeia Therapeutic College (1862)
Occupation-Surgeon
Employer-United States Army
Spouse(s)-Albert Miller

Awards Medal of Honor
Known for-Receiving the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War, first female U.S. Army surgeon, feminism, prohibitionism, abolitionist, first and only female Medal of Honor recipient


As of 2015, she is the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor.[1]

In 1855 she earned her medical degree at Syracuse Medical College in New York, married and started a medical practice. The practice didn't do well and she volunteered with the Union Army at the outbreak of the American Civil War and served as a surgeon at a temporary hospital inside the capitol.

Walker, ca 1870. She often wore men's clothes and was arrested for impersonating a man several times.

Women and sectarian physicians were not even considered for the Union Army Examining Board because they were unfit, let alone someone who met both of those qualifications.[2] She was captured by Confederate forces after crossing enemy lines to treat wounded civilians and arrested as a spy. She was sent as a prisoner of war to Richmond, Virginia until released in a prisoner exchange.

After the war, she was approved for the highest United States Armed Forces decoration for bravery, the Medal of Honor, for her efforts during the Civil War. She is the only woman to receive the medal and one of only eight civilians to receive it. Her name was deleted from the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917 and restored in 1977. After the war, she was a writer and lecturer supporting the women's suffrage movement until her death in 1919.
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