Women Heroes of the American Revolution

March 11 - Today's post contributed by Susan Casey

Women participated in almost every aspect of the American Revolution.  The war came to them.  Battles took place in cities, on farms, outside homes.  Women aided the cause as spies, soldiers, saboteurs, rescuers and more.

Sybil Ludington photo = Courtesy of Susan Casey

Since many women of the time couldn’t read or write, their stories were passed on orally or captured in journals and letters often written by relatives.  When doing research to write Women Heroes of the American Revolution, though, I soon discovered that not every story passed down could be trusted, that there were often multiple versions of many of the tales.

Take the story of Prudence Wright who lived in Pepperrell, Massachusetts, only 45 miles away from the conflicts in Lexington and Concord that sparked the revolution.  She and other women in town had bid goodbye to their husbands, sons, and brothers who had left to join the fight.  While they waited to hear of the events, Prudence overheard a conversation about couriers carrying messages to the British in Boston and that they would be traveling past her town on their way.  She’d heard enough.  She mustered the women of Pepperrell who grabbed muskets, pitchforks, whatever they could use as a weapon. The women hid by the side of a road at the foot of a nearby bridge, surprised and dismounted the couriers when they passed, seized the messages, sadly discovered that one of the men was Prudence’s own brother, then delivered them to the authorities.

Prudence Wright monument - Courtesy of the Pepperell Historical Commission

The story of Prudence and the pitchfork brigade is a straightforward account but there are several versions of it.  Which one is the most accurate? Sorting that out points up the difficulty of writing about people who lived two hundred years ago.  As I wrote I struggled with what to include and finally decided to include all the accounts, to give readers the chance to interpret the event for themselves--to play the historian.  I did that throughout.

Elizabeth Burgin's story is an example of a dramatic tale gleaned from sketchy information related in only three letters--an account told in correspondence.  Two of the letters are from her and one is from George Washington.  She wrote that she helped 200 American prisoners escape from prison ships in New York and that she was on the run herself after the British offered a reward for her capture.  Washington commended her in his letter, writing that she had been "indefatigable for the relief of prisoners" while asking for aid for her.  Snippets that whet one's appetite for more.

Some stories are well documented and from a variety of sources.  Sixteen-year-old Betty Zane volunteered to run across a battlefield to retrieve much needed gunpowder for settlers fighting the British and their Native American allies who were attacking Fort Henry in one of the last battles of the war.  She ran the hundred yards to a cabin where the ammunition was kept and the attackers just watched. However, on her return trip they must have realized her mission.  Shots flew but she dodged them and safely slid back inside the gates of the fort, gunpowder in hand.

Heroism of Miss Elizabeth Zane  - Library of Congress LC-USZ62-2335

 Esther Reed, the wife of the then governor of Pennsylvania, called for the ladies of Philadelphia to help improve the plight of the ordinary soldier.  She, Sarah Franklin Bache, daughter of Benjamin Franklin, and dozens of other women went door-to-door fundraising, used the money to buy linen and made 2,500 shirts for the troops.

Esther Reed Sarah Franklin Bache - The drawing appeared in Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution by Benson John Lossing,  published in 1860

Sarah Franklin Bache - The drawing appeared in Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution by Benson John Lossing,  published in 1860.

Martha Bratton boldly defied the British soldiers who came to seize her family’s stash of gunpowder.  As they approached, she lit it on fire.  After it exploded the British commander demanded to know the perpetrator.  Martha boldly proclaimed, “It was I who did it.”

Martha Bratton from The Story of a Great Nation, 1888; courtesy of Historical Center of York County, Culture and Heritage Museums.

In some stories, though, the action of women is implied as opposed to being known.  Mary Lindley Murray helped the Continental Army.  Or did she?  Just after being defeated by the British in New York, the last of the Continental army troops, 3500 of them, were retreating on a road leading out of town.  On that same road, however, British officers and their 8,000 troops were heading into New York.  Had the two armies met it would have been a disaster for the Americans.  But they didn't.  Mary, a Quaker, who was suspected of being supportive of the revolution, invited the British officers to stop at her home along the way for some wine and cake.  As the British sipped wine and joked with Mary about her American friends, the rebel troops successfully joined the rest of the army.  No direct evidence exists that Mary assessed the situation and planned the delay.  The British later claimed they were ordered to stop in that area to await the arrival of other British troops.  The buzz at the time, though, was that Mary saved the American army.  What do you think?

Mary Lindley Murray -  Courtesy of Susan Casey

In other stories, facts give way to imagination.  Molly Pitcher is lauded in many textbooks for taking over a cannon when her husband was felled on the battlefield.  Yet anyone looking for a birth or death record for her won't find one.  Many artists depicted the scene and since they didn't know the brave woman's name dubbed her Captain Molly and ultimately Molly Pitcher.  The fictional Molly has overshadowed the real-life efforts of Mary Ludwig Hays and Margaret Cochran Corbin, the women who actually stepped up at two different battles.  They were acknowledged in their lifetimes but haven't enjoyed the fame garnered by the legendary Molly Pitcher.

Molly Pitcher - Library of Congress LC-USZC2-3186

Researching, writing and verifying the stories of the women heroes of the American Revolution was challenging but it was a captivating adventure, one spent over many months in dozens of libraries.

Susan Casey
Courtesy of Susan Casey

Susan Casey is the author of Women Heroes of the American Revolution, of Kid Inventing! A Handbook for Young Inventors, Women Invent! Two Centuries of Discoveries of That Have Shaped Our World.  She is also a journalist whose work has appeared in Fast Company, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle among other publications.  She lives in Los Angeles.

PANTS

March 8 - Today's post contributed by Cheryl Harness

PANTS

Mary Walker was born on our planet all right, in Oswego, New York, but hers was a whole different world than ours. When she was born, on November 26, 1832, the only light was the sun by day, moonlight or fire by night. Nothing went faster than a horse could run. A female who tried to vote was an outlaw. But it was perfectly legal for Americans to buy and sell people who’d have to do what they were told. Men wore the pants in Mary’s world and did men’s jobs: Doctor. Engineer. Lawyer. Lawmaker. Soldier. Preacher. A female who dressed like a man, who tried to break into a man’s profession, was outrageous and truly scandalous. A woman who pulled on a pair of poufy pantaloons underneath her knee-length skirt then went outdoors was going against iron-hard customs, nature, even the dictates of God.

The world of the past is just about unthinkable for us modern types, but it’s not unimaginable.

And the more you imagine, the more you’ll see how remarkable it was, the story of Dr. Mary Walker.

Mary Edwards Walker was used to people’s anger and amazement. From the very beginning, her parents taught her and her older sisters, Vesta, Aurora Borealis, Luna, and Cynthia; and their kid brother, Alvah, to think for themselves even if it meant going against society’s customs. They were dead-set against folks smoking, drinking alcohol, and definitely opposed to enslaving their fellow human beings. They were for women’s equal right to vote and girls’ right to a good and thorough education. In fact, the Walkers built a school on their farm, for boys and girls. They believed in equal comfort, too. Girls’ clothes shouldn’t be so tight and fancy, as was the fashion. Mary Walker never forgot that lesson. In fact, her ideas about girly dresses would upset people more than anything!

After more schooling at a nearby academy, Mary became a teacher, a proper job, most folks thought, for any lady not lucky enough to have a husband to provide for her. To Mary, it was her way to earn money to study for the job she really wanted: Physician. Three years had passed since 1849, when Elizabeth Blackwell became America’s very first female medical doctor (M.D.). People still weren’t used to such an upsetting idea. Never mind; Mary was determined to be the second.

She stood out, being the only coed at the Syracuse (New York) Medical School. As she studied her way through three 13-week terms there, Mary stood out even more because of the ways she thought and dressed.

How, Mary wondered, could women be taken seriously as equal citizens when society insisted that they wear unhealthy, impractical, silly dresses? How could a person breathe or move freely, in a stiff, tight corset, dragging around long, heavy skirts, wire hoops, and petticoats? These were modern times! This was the 19th century! Old ways had to change!

But not even tough, brave revolutionaries like Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony could put up with the stares. They were laughed at or cursed as sinful freaks in their shortened skirts worn over baggy pantaloons. Folks called them “bloomers” after Amelia Bloomer. She and other “dress reformers” were way ahead of their time. Most of them gave up and put on their long skirts, but not Mary Walker.

For all her differences, Mary had one thing in common with many a young person before and since: She fell in love with a fellow student. In 1856, newly graduated doctors, Mary Walker and Albert Miller, newlyweds, opened a medical practice in Rome, NY, but things went badly. Too few patients wanted to take their ailments to some radical “bloomerite!” Worse, later on, Mary found out that Albert was romancing other ladies. It’d be years before she could get a legal divorce from the man she called “the villain,” but really, by 1860, their marriage was broken. Even worse, their nation was breaking up, too.

Eleven southern States left the Union to form a separate nation, the Confederate States of America (CSA), where slavery would be the law of the land. But the new U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, wanted the rebellious Americans back in the USA, even if it meant all out war. And so it did: The first shots were fired April 12, 1861, at Charleston, South Carolina.

In late July 1861, the broad streets of the U.S. capital were full of supply wagons, carts, carriages, and blue-coated U.S. soldiers. Many were still recovering from the first big fight of the war, a Confederate victory. It happened earlier that month, some 20 miles away, over at Manassas, VA, at a creek called Bull Run.

Washingtonians noticed that tall President Lincoln looked tired and worried when they saw him out and about. Still, he’d tip his tall, stovepipe hat to bonneted ladies, doing their best to keep their hoopskirts from dragging through puddles or worse, in unpaved avenues full of horses. They may well have scowled at a short, pretty woman, walking swiftly in her outrageous pants. Dr. Mary Walker, 29, probably ignored them. Like everyone else in the wartime city, she had a lot on her mind.

Dr. Walker would be speeding to or from the hospital set up in the big, unfinished U.S. Patent Office building. As an unpaid volunteer, she had lots to do: writing letters for men unable to do so. Tending to their bandages, fevers, and coughs. Raising money for poor folks who’d come to visit their sick, wounded sons, brothers, and husbands. Asking important men to let her join the medical corps as an official Army surgeon. Being told NO.

Women – Clara Barton, Dorothea Dix, and young Louisa May Alcott, for instance – were nurses, not doctors. So ambitious, patriotic, stubborn Mary went home to New York to get more training and earn some money. How? By giving speeches about healthy fashion and her experiences in the nation’s capital. Then she went back to the terrible war, unaware that she was heading into the great adventure of her life.

Sure, there were officers who saw Mary as a pretty-but-pesky, attention-seeker, but they couldn’t deny the tragic obvious. The war kept producing sick, shattered soldiers by the hundreds of thousands and they needed care. Mary did her best to give it, at field hospitals from Fredericksburg, Virginia, to Chattanooga, Tennessee. She met with considerable abuse over her persistent demands to be made a surgeon – and considerable respect for her hard work.
   
Mary presented herself at the Virginia headquarters of Major General Ambrose Burnside. in November 1862, and was taken on as a field surgeon, although still on a volunteer basis. As such, she treated the wounded at Warrenton, VA, and at the terrible battle of Fredericksburg, in December 1862. At last, in September 1863, her work became official. Major General George H. Thomas appointed Dr. Mary E. Walker to the U.S. Army of the Cumberland in the 52nd Ohio Regiment – a first for the military and a first for women.

(photo from the US Army Medical Department,
Office of Medical History)

Mary tailored an officer’s coat down to size. Under her calf-length skirt she wore gentlemanly trousers. She tied a green sash, indicating her surgeon’s status, around her narrow waist and put on a jaunty feathered hat. Grabbing her doctor’s bag and a pair of pistols, she set off on horseback to wherever her services were needed. In makeshift hospitals, sometimes out where bullets were flying, Mary doctored infantrymen, artillery troops, drummer boys – even civilians who needed looking after, sometimes behind shifting enemy lines. Most of her patients were U.S. fighters, but more than one fallen “Rebel” found himself being treated by a little “Yankee” lady-surgeon.

Some folks said that Dr. Walker was a spy. One particular fellow, a Rebel sentry, was so sure of it that he pointed his rifle at her and cried, “Halt!” Mary was under arrest!

It was April 10, 1864, in Georgia, not far from the Tennessee line. Mary was looking for wounded men, left behind from the fighting thereabouts, when she was captured. It wasn’t long before Dr. Mary Walker, prisoner-of-war, was on a train bound for Richmond, Virginia. There, in the Confederate capital, she was installed in Libby Prison, in what once had been a tobacco warehouse. Now "Castle Thunder" was home to a thousand-or-so prisoners plus many a rat and creepy-crawly.

Through the spring and summer of 1864, Mary wrote letters and pleaded for better food for herself and her fellow prisoners. Cabbage, for instance, to go with their usual bits of rice, peas, cornbread, and bacon. Less than 75 miles away, tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers led by U.S. General Ulysses S. Grant and C.S. General Robert E. Lee were dying in battle after battle. In August, as U.S. General William T. Sherman’s army was closing in on Atlanta, Georgia, Union and Confederate officials worked out a prisoner exchange. So it was that on August 12, 1864, Dr. Walker was free.

A flag of truce fluttered over the steamboat that carrying Mary and hundreds of other freed prisoners down the James River to the Union fort at Hampton Roads, Virginia. She went on to Washington, to find what her future held. She wanted to go back to the battlefields, but it was not to be. Until June 15, 1865, when her military career ended, Mary spent her time looking after the health of women prisoners in Kentucky and orphans and refugees in Tennessee. She gave speeches, campaigning for President Lincoln’s reelection (he won), celebrated the end of the hellish Civil War (the U.S. won), and mourned, along with all of the exhausted soldiers, newly freed slaves, and stunned Americans, when a liquored-up, racist actor, handsome John Wilkes Booth, murdered President Lincoln.
   
Less than a year later, on January 24, 1866, Dr. Mary Walker received a letter:

     Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, "has rendered valuable service to the Government and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways," and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, Ky., upon the recommendation of Major Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United States, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has also endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a Southern prison while acting as contract surgeon; and 
    Whereas by reason of her not being a commissioned officer in the military service, a brevet or honorary rank cannot, under existing laws, be conferred upon her; and 
   Whereas in the opinion of the President an honorable recognition of her services and sufferings should be made: It is ordered, That a testimonial thereof shall be hereby made and given to the said Dr. Mary E. Walker, and that the usual medal of honor for meritorious services be given her. 
     Given under my hand in the city of Washington, D.C., this 11th day of November, A.D. 1865.
           Andrew Johnson, President Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War

No woman before (or since) had ever won the Medal of Honor. Mary would wear it with with pride for the rest of her life – no matter what.

After the war, audiences in America and abroad paid to hear Mary tell about her imprisonment and her Civil War service and to see her in her notorious, gentlemanly suit. It caused scenes – even got her arrested! Some might have given up and put on a dress, but not Mary. “I wear this style of dress from the highest, the purest and the noblest principle!” She was making no mere fashion fashion statement. Dr. Mary Walker was determined to be a living manifesto the health, freedom, and equality for women.

In the years to come, she applied herself to medicine, politics, and lobbying the U.S. Government for veterans' benefits. Despite her service as a surgeon, it took Mary more than thirty years of asking before she received her monthly $20. Because of her gender and her nontraditional training, Mary was never able to make much of a living as a physician. Though she passionately believed in votes for women, her contrary ways alienated mainstream suffragists. She headed the National Dress Reform Association, in 1866. Despite her political involvement, party officials turned her down – twice – when she offered herself as a Democratic candidate for Congress. Still, her work led to a job with the U.S. Department of the Interior (1882-1883), but her stubborn outspokenness got her fired. It served her better as a writer and speechmaker.

Mary Edwards Walker
(photo from National Library of Medicine,
Images from the History of Medicine, B010947)

At heart, Mary was a crusader. She lobbied the U.S. Congress on behalf of her many causes. And she published her many views in books: Hit (1871) and Unmasked, or the Science of Immorality, (1878). In her trademark suit and top hat, she traveled and lectured, even in museum sideshows for anyone who’d bought a 10¢ ticket. Between journeys, Mary spent more and more time on her family’s farm, tending her garden, her cow, horse, and chickens. She doctored her Oswego neighbors. Some, who knew nothing of the peculiar old lady’s glorious past, made fun of her and pulled pranks, to see her lose her famous temper. Always hard up for money, Mary dreamed up ways to make her farm pay. A school for girls? A sanitarium for folks with tuberculosis? In 1917, when the U.S. was about to enter World War I, the elderly veteran invited Germany’s emperor to come visit. She’d arrange a peace conference. Millions of lives might be saved! Alas, none of her schemes blossomed.

She was quite elderly when, on one of her trips to Washington, D.C. when the frail crusader suffered a pair of dreadful setbacks at the U.S. Capitol. For one thing, in 1917, Dr. Walker was badly hurt in a fall on the Capitol's marble steps. For another, the important men Inside decided that hundreds of Medals of Honor, including Dr. Walker’s, had been improperly awarded. Did Dr. Walker accept this judgment meekly? What do you think? Over her dead body would she return her beloved Medal. Indeed, she wore it to the end of her long life, which came on the 21st of February, 1919, when she was 86 years old.

One can only hope that Dr. Walker heard the news from beyond the grave: That the American people ratified the 19th Amendment, in 1920. At last, female citizens could vote for their nation’s leaders. And, in time, they did so, wearing jeans, shorts, and all manner of PANTS.

Moreover, on June 10, 1977, President Jimmy Carter restored the Medal of Honor to Dr. Mary Edwards Walker. After all, she had stubbornly served her nation - with valor.

Cheryl Harness began her life in California, during President Truman's Administration. She grew up in his hometown, Independence, MO, where she currently lives and works. After graduating from the University of Central MO, she worked as a greeting card artist at Hallmark Cards (KCMO) and Current, Inc., in Colorado Springs, CO.  Since 1988, she has written and/or illustrated some 45 books, including Remember the Ladies: 100 Great American Women (HarperCollins, 2003). The Tragic Tale of Narcissa Whitman and a Faithful History of the Oregon Trail (National Geographic, 2006) and most recently, Mary Walker Wears the Pants: The True Story of the Doctor, Reformer, and Civil War Hero (Albert Whitman, March 2013)

Afterword: Mary Edwards Walker was born November 26, 1832, in Oswego, NY, to Alvah and Vesta Walker. She and her brother, Alvah, had four sisters: Vesta, Aurora Borealis, Luna, and Cynthia. Mary worked as a teacher to pay for her classes at the Syracuse (NY) Medical School, which specialized in herbal and homeopathic treatments. In 1855, she married fellow physician, Albert Miller. They set up an unsuccessful practice in Rome, NY. In 1869, long after she separated from her straying husband, Mary won a divorce from “the villain.” 

She becomes Pres. of Nat’l Dress Reform Assoc [1866… she campaigns, speaks out pro temperance, anti-tobacco, pro suffrage, but corsets and heavy dragging, disease-carrying skirts are her main peeve + her increasingly mannish clothing, incl. her silk topper, gets her the most attention…. successful tour of England pp. 26/27 Touring, writing, shut out of mainstream woman suffrage movement because of her crackpot status, so extreme in her views. Too definite. pp. 28/29 last years: poverty, eccentricity, US Congress rescinds her Medal. [Dr. M.W. : the Congress will take her medal” over her dead body!”] she has a bad fall on the steps to the U.S. Capitol, c. 1917, never fully recovers pp. 30/31 death @ 86 21 Feb 1919; Dr. Walker is buried in her trademark gentleman’s dress suit, with her Medal of Honor/epilogue 20th Amendment ratified, President Jimmy Carter restores her M. of H. p. 32 Bibliography 

Almost a year later, she was in Chattanooga, tending the casualties of the battle of Chickamauga. After the battle, she again requested a commission as an Army doctor. In September 1863, MG George H. Thomas appointed her as an assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland, assigning her to the 52d Ohio Regiment. Many stories were told of her bravery under fire. However, she served in this capacity for only a short time.

In April 1864, she was captured by Confederate troops, having remained behind to tend wounded upon a Union retirement. Charged with being a spy and arrested, her male attire constituting the principal evidence against her, Dr. Walker spent four months in various prisons, subject to much abuse for her unladylike occupation and attire, until she was exchanged for a Confederate surgeon in August 1864.

 In October of the same year, the Medical Department granted Dr. Walker a contract as an acting assistant surgeon. Despite her requests for battlefield duty, she was not again sent into the field. She spent the rest of the war as superintendent at a Louisville, Ky., female prison hospital and a Clarksville, Tenn., orphanage. 

Released from government contract at the end of the war, Dr. Walker lobbied for a brevet promotion to major for her services. Secretary of War Stanton would not grant the request. President Andrew Johnson asked for another way to recognize her service. A Medal of Honor was presented to Dr. Walker in January 1866. She wore it every day for the rest of her life. 

After the war, Dr. Walker remained active in the women’s rights movement and crusaded against immorality, alcohol and tobacco and for clothing and election reform. One of her more unusual positions was that there was no need for a women’s suffrage act, as women already had the vote as American citizens.

Her taste in clothes caused frequent arrests on such charges as impersonating a man. At one trial, she asserted her right to, “Dress as I please in free America on whose tented fields I have served for four years in the cause of human freedom.” The judge dismissed the case and ordered the police never to arrest Dr. Walker on that charge again. She left the courtroom to hearty applause.

In 1916, Congress revised the Medal of Honor standards to include only actual combat with an enemy. Several months later, in 1917, the Board of Medal Awards, after reviewing the merits of the awardees of the Civil War awards, ruled Dr. Walker’s medal, as well as those of 910 other recipients, as unwarranted and revoked.

She died on 21 February 1919 at the age of 86. However, Dr. Walker was not forgotten. Nearly 60 years after her death, at the urging of a descendant, the Army Board for Correction of Military Records reviewed the case. On 19 June 1977, Army Secretary Clifford L. Alexander approved the recommendation by the board to restore the Medal of Honor to Dr. Mary E. Walker. She remains the sole female recipient of the Medal of Honor. Assoc. of the U.S. Army www3.ausa.org/webpub/DeptNCOStuff.nsf/byid/KCAT-6D7QFS

Apparelled in Honor: The Story of Dr. Mary Edwards Walker

March 21 - Today's post provided by Jim Weiss

In 2011, author and recording artist Jim Weiss wrote and recorded  Women in Blue or Gray: True Stories from Both Sides of the American Civil War.  Jim says, “In our desire to focus on famous figures in history, too often we overlook equally remarkable people who did not achieve fame, but whose accomplishments really mattered.  Worse yet, historians have frequently ignored the contributions of women, making it doubly hard to find inspiring, true stories of women.  My recording allowed me to shine a light on six astonishing women, some from the Union and some from the Confederacy.  Here is one of the stories, as I wrote it for the recording.”

APPARELLED IN HONOR:

THE STORY OF DR. MARY EDWARDS WALKER

Mary Edwards Walker

America’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor, is given only rarely; but one particular Medal of Honor was the rarest of all, for it was presented to the only woman who has ever received the Medal of Honor.  This is her story.

Alvah Walker crossed his farm field and shouted, “Mary!”  Moments later, his daughter Mary stepped from the barn.  She wore a dress with a wide skirt and Alvah could see her trying to hold a dusty bucket high enough so that it would not brush the skirt.  “I told you, Mary, you can’t help me dressed like that.  Go get into something more comfortable.  Then come out here in the field.”

Alvah and Vesta Walker owned a farm in Oswego, New York.  Alvah  was a good farmer, a fine carpenter and a good neighbor, though some people remarked, “Nice fella but strange ideas.”  Alvah and Vesta openly supported the abolition of slavery, which was controversial enough in the 1840’s.  But they thought, also, that all their children, boys and girls, ought to have as fine an education as possible and the chance to use what they’d learned in professions.  The Walkers built Oswego’s first schoolhouse on their property.

Mary Edwards Walker and two older sisters went on for teaching degrees, but Mary had her eye on another, seemingly impossible goal.  She saved up her teacher’s salary and announced to family and friends, “I have decided to become a doctor.”

When friends protested,  “There’s no such thing as a woman doctor,” Mary replied, “Not yet.” 

The Syracuse Medical College in up-state New York had advertised that it would accept women medical students.  Mary became the only woman student in the college, and worked hard to show some of her skeptical classmates that she was their equal.  In June 1855, she became Doctor Mary Edwards Walker, the second woman ever licensed to be a medical doctor in the United States. 

Many people thought that the new doctor must be some sort of freak, and it didn’t help that Mary, remembering her father’s practical lessons on dress, wore pants, a shirt with a high collar, and a long coat that ended just below her knees.  Slowly, however, she began to build a practice. A year later, she married Albert Miller, another doctor.  But when she stood at Albert’s side and said, “I do,” Mary did not wear the traditional bridal gown.  She was clothed in one of her coat and trouser outfits – and she insisted on keeping her own last name.  Some of their friends whispered, “I adore Mary, but don’t you think she might be… well, difficult as a wife?”

However, it was Albert Miller who turned out to be a dreadful husband. Mary tried hard, but a few years later, both their marriage and their shared medical practice fell apart. 

At the same time, the United States was splitting into Union and Confederacy.  So Dr. Mary Edwards Walker went to Washington.  There, an officer told her, “There’s just no place for a woman doctor in the army, especially as a surgeon.  But we do need nurses.”

“Nurses are important,” Mary replied, “ but if saving lives is what matters most, I can do more good in the role for which I have been trained: as a physician, and I’m willing to prove myself.  If you won’t make me a soldier, I will volunteer my services, and all I ask in return are food and shelter.  I am confident that you will change your mind once you’ve seen the excellence of my work.”

She began at a makeshift hospital that had been set up in the main U.S. Postal Service building in Washington, arriving in time to help treat wounded from the First Battle of Manassas a few miles west of the capitol.  A few months later, an outbreak of deadly typhoid fever struck Union forces in Warrenton, Virginia, southwest of the capitol, and Mary went to work there, for during the Civil War, germs were as deadly to soldiers as were bullets and cannon balls. 

Doctor Walker’s excellent work caused one of the army doctors with whom she worked to protest, “You are working as hard, and as well, as any of us.  If the government won’t pay you a wage, allow me the honor of splitting mine with you.”

“You have no idea how much your offer means to me.  But I will earn what men earn or nothing.”

Though other doctors wrote letters on Mary’s behalf, the government still refused to pay a woman doctor.  And when she went to serve at an army hospital at the brutal battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, she ran into opposition from some male surgeons. Used to removing wounded legs and arms rather than taking the time for more complex treatment, these doctors were furious to learn that Mary had correctly counseled numerous soldiers, “This leg can be saved.  You tell them that you insist that they do not take it off.”  She said later, “It was gratifying to receive a wave of farewell from a soldier knowing that I had saved that arm from unnecessary amputation.”

In January 1864, when General George Thomas made her chief surgeon for a regiment stationed in Tennessee, a male doctor challenged her qualifications, protesting, “I don’t imagine she knows anything more about medicine than do most housewives.”   His complaint reached the desk of General William Tecumseh Sherman.  But Sherman knew Dr. Walker’s excellence.  He replied, “Tell this fella I can’t do anything about Dr. Walker.  She outranks me.”

After her rocky start, Mary slowly won over the troops, and for the first time, she was paid -- a whopping $80 per month.  In addition to treating soldiers, she decided to serve needy civilians.  Colleagues warned her, “Don’t go wandering off.  The Confederates are nearby.  If they find you, they might arrest you as a spy, and they hang spies.”

“That’s why I’ve taken to wearing a uniform.  They would have to treat me as a soldier – even if my own country won’t.”  But a few weeks later, on her way to visit a civilian family, Mary heard shouts of, “Halt!  Who goes there?”  She had walked into a Confederate patrol!

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker spent the next four months as a prisoner of war at the Castle Thunder military prison near Richmond, Virginia.  Here, hundreds of Union prisoners were overcrowded in the heat and dirt of a former factory warehouse.  The officer in charge was brutal towards prisoners, but Mary convinced him, “Let me treat my fellow prisoners and any of your troops who fall ill.”  She continued to work even after injuring her eye while treating a patient.  She even convinced the officer in charge to improve the quality of the food the prisoners received.

One day, a Confederate officer informed her, “We are sending you back north as part of an exchange of prisoners held by both sides.  You are being exchanged for…” -- he glanced at a paper --  “… a Confederate major.”

Mary laughed.  “Well, they may not make me an officer up north, but at least they’ll trade me for one.”

Returning to her regiment, Dr. Walker was at last officially declared an “acting assistant surgeon” at the salary of $100 per month – the first female surgeon ever commissioned in the United States Army, though still not a soldier.

Mary served with the army for the rest of the war.  Afterward, Generals George Thomas and William T. Sherman personally lobbied on her behalf with Lincoln’s successor in the White House, President Andrew Johnson.  They told Johnson that Mary deserved a position as an army doctor.  “Dr. Walker even received an injury while a prisoner of war, and yet she continued her life-saving work.” 

Johnson’s reply: “There is no regulation allowing me to grant your request.  However, I am recommending Dr. Mary Edwards Walker for the highest honor her nation can grant: the Medal of Honor.”

The official citation mentioned Dr. Walker’s “valuable service… in devoting herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers … to the detriment of her own health... (while) enduring hardships as a prisoner of war.” 

In 1918, at age 85, Mary Edwards Walker was informed that the rules regulating the Medal of Honor had been changed and that, as a civilian, she had to return her medal.  She refused, continuing to wear it proudly.  Around that same time, while visiting Washington, D.C., to meet with members of congress, she fell on the Capitol steps, suffering multiple injuries.  She never fully recovered, and shortly afterward, Dr. Mary Edwards Walker died in the town of her birth, Oswego, New York, surrounded by devoted family and friends. 

Nearly 60 years later, in 1977, President Jimmy Carter reinstated Dr. Walker, and seven other civilians, as Medal of Honor recipients.  Dr. Mary Edwards Walker remains the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor.  




Editor's Note:   JIM WEISS has been a storyteller for over 25 years.  His production company, Greathall Productions 
(1-800-477-6234), has won more than 100 major awards for its many recordings of stories from history and classic literature.  Jim travels extensively throughout the United States, giving live performances at stores, libraries, schools and community events.  

Joan of Arc: an early feminist

March 17 - Today's post provided by Michelle Holt of Peaceful Reader

Joan of Arc: An early feminist

It may be the 21st Century but women still struggle to be heard and to be treated equally.  It’s hard to imagine a world where women coexist with men without fear of intimidation, with equal pay, equal time for families and equal expectations.   Positive steps have been made but for a woman to succeed she is almost required to put up with crass jokes, negative stereotyping, and horrible discrimination.  

My daughter and I, through our research, have found examples of strong female leaders.  Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sojourner Truth, and Amelia Earhart are just a handful of our favorites.  These women broke new ground by standing by their opinions even when it went against the collective male agenda of the day.  Every young girl should have a pocket full of women to call on for inspiration.

When I was first asked to write a post for KidLit Celebrates Women's History Month, I was honored and then stumped.  I have a lot of women I find inspiring but  would I choose to highlight for this post? Luckily I’d recently watched a movie, at the request of my husband, about Joan of Arc.  After watching it I felt compelled to make Joan the focus for this post.

Quote:  “One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it.  But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying.”  ~Joan of Arc

The beautiful Joan of Arc book written by Demi (2011 Marshall Cavendish), whose artwork strikes a perfect match for her unique historical narrative shares with us Joan’s amazing story.

She was born January 6, 1412, in the small French village of Domremy.  At an early age she was drawn to the church and felt connected to God.  Throughout her childhood France was engaged in the Hundred Year War with England and Burgundy.  English and Burgundian soldiers would burn villages and kill the people.  Joan, even at an early age, could see the injustices surrounding her life both in the village and in her country.  She prayed hoping to bring forth balance.  At the age of 13 Joan saw a vision of the Archangel Michael.  He told her she would be the one to save the kingdom of France by leading the dauphin, Charles VII, to his coronation at the Reims Cathedral. 

Joan, an illiterate village girl, took charge of her destiny while Charles VII chose to hide from his birthright.  She had God on her side and after her vision she prayed more fervently and often heard angels speak to her.  Eventually she left home against the wishes of her father.  On the first leg of her journey she was told she was crazy (by a man, of course) and forced to return home.  She continued to listen to the angel’s wishes for her and, through her persistence, ended up finding and impressing the dauphin.   Joan stayed strong in her convictions to lead France, and Charles VII to many victories. Eventually she ran out of luck and was captured by the English. 

On February 21, 1431, Joan’s trial began with forty-four men questioning her faith.  She was given a death sentence for wearing men’s clothing and sentenced to be burned at the stake.  They question her faith but all they could come up with was a wardrobe malfunction!

What?  Yes, for wearing men’s clothing, not for having private conversations with God, listening to angels, or that she’d lead the French army against the English.  They convicted Joan on the basis that she didn’t dress the way they wanted her to: in the proper woman’s attire of the day.  

How frustrating it must have been for Joan to explain God’s word again and again to those 44 men and not be heard or believed.  I don’t know what it is like to stand before a jury and plead for my life but I do know, as do most women, what it’s like to have men not hear me or care what I’m saying.  We still have evidence of this battle between men and women raging today in courts and in the news.   We’ve all had bosses who wink and nod, crack disgusting jokes, and generally play down the important role women take in the world today just as Joan was treated hundreds of years ago.  Quite often their sentiment for us does come down to what we wear and how we should be seen and not heard.

It is important to reflect on Joan’s contributions to our history as she forged an early path for women to voice their beliefs.   Reading her story to my daughter I know she will keep Saint Joan in her pocket to bring out when she needs a valiant warrior to hear her. 



Editor's Note:
Michelle works as a teacher-librarian at an elementary school, forcing good books into the hands of her students while teaching them how to be good leaders and readers.  She as been blogging at Peaceful Reader since 2009.  Her most important job every day though is listening to her nine-year-old daughter Groovy Girl.

A review of Demi's, Joan of Arc, may be found on The Fourth Musketeer.

Women Heroes of WWII

March 31 - Today's post provided by The Children's War

Women Heroes of World War II: 26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance and Rescue by Kathryn J. Atwood

           When I was 10 years old, I decided to dress up as my mother for Halloween.  My costume was simple: shoes, dress, a church hat and a big old purse she no longer used.    Nothing really fit, but I didn’t care.  Why my mother?  Well, as a World War II nurse, she was my hero, the first in what was to become a long list of women heroes who have served as historical mentors in my life.  So, when I think of this year’s theme for Women’s History Month, Our History Is Our Strength, I know exactly what that means. 

            Now Kathryn Atwood has written a very moving account of 26 strong, courageous women who stood up and said no to the Nazi scourge at great risk to their lives.  Some of these women joined underground resistance movements in Nazi-occupied countries, others rescued Jews and Allied soldiers caught behind enemy lines, and still others worked as spies, mingling with the enemy to gather useful information.  Some of these women were quite young.  In Poland, 19-year-old Irene Gut worked for a high ranking German officer in his villa.  She was able to hide 12 Jews in the basement of the house, right under his nose.  When he found out, he gave Irene a choice: become his mistress or he would turn them all over to the Gestapo.  She made the first choice, never told anyone about it and eventually Irene was able to lead these Jews into the forest, where they were liberated.

Sophie Scholl

            Sophie Scholl, a college student in Munich, Germany wasn’t much older than Irene when she began her Resistance activities.  Along with 10 others including her brother Hans, Sophie belonged to the White Rose (die weiße Rose.)  The group wrote and distributed six extensive anti-Nazi leaflets urging people to denounce Hitler’s government in word and deed.  Anti-Nazi behavior was considered treason, punishable by death.  Sophie and Hans were arrested, and later tried and executed on the same day. In a country where people no longer had any civil liberties, her actions were courageous and heroic.  Silence, I believe, is a sign of acceptance, and these students refused to accept what the Nazis were doing in their beloved country.

Josephine Baker

            Other women in Women Heroes of World War II were surprises to me, for example, Josephine Baker and Marlene Dietrich.  Josephine Baker, an African-American, had lived in Paris for many years after leaving the US in part because of the racism she encountered here.  As an entertainer, Josephine had the perfect cover for a spying.  Before France fell to the Nazis, Josephine did some espionage working for the Deuxième Bureau, a French intelligence agency.  Her celebrity status allowed her to mingle at parties where she would listen in on conversations and acquire much need information.  Later, when France was occupied by the Germans, Josephine retired to her chateau.  Her chateau was then used as a stop-off for resistance workers, a safe house for refugees, and storage space for weapons.  Later, Josephine toured Spain, Portugal and North Africa, again partying in order to gather information. 

Marlene Dieetrich

          Marlene Dietrich, though German born, was an American citizen who worked against the Nazis and volunteered to entertain troops for the USO, often at great risk to herself.  Sometimes, she was so close to the front lines, she could hear gunfire and bombs going off.  When she started to use her signature song, Lilie Marlene, in English for the troops, the Nazis were livid, that had been their World War I song.  But she also sang it in German for the Soldatensender West, an Allied radio program broadcast in German and directed at Hitler’s soldiers, along with other anti-Nazi propaganda.  It turned out, German soldiers has listened to Soldatensender West, even though it was forbidden.  

            These are just a few examples of the lives of the extraordinary women who risked everything to help others in very dangerous situations that are included in this book.  Though every story is different, the women were motivated by the same thing: when the time came, they did what they felt was right.  Later, many received awards and medals for they work and some were even awarded the title “Righteous among Nations” by Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the Holocaust, for the Jews they saved.

            Women Heroes of World War II is a well written, well researched book.  Ms. Atwood profiles the resistance activities of women from eight countries: Germany, Poland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Great Britain and the United States.  There is a brief summary of the way in which each country entered World War II.  This information really helps the reader appreciate the dangers and obstacles these woman faced.  Each woman’s story is also supplemented with additional material, for example, passages from the leaflets written by Sophie Scholl and the White Rose, or the edict issued when Denmark was forced to surrender to the Germans.  At the end of every woman’s story is a list of resources where the reader can go to find more information about her.  The beauty of the organization of this book is that it can be read from cover to cover, as I did, or in parts.  Each narrative stands on it own.  This makes it ideal as a teaching tool and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

            Out of curiosity I asked Ms. Atwood what made her decide to write Women Heroes of World War II.  She said that her dad had been a young tail gunner in Europe during World War II (tail gunner, I have learned, was a very lonely, dangerous position) and she was always fascinated by his war stories.  Another parental hero!

            Because of her Dutch heritage, Ms. Atwood was also familiar with women resistance workers in the Netherlands, such as Corrie ten Boom and Diet Eman, both included in her book, and both amazing women.

Women Heroes of World War II is recommended for readers age 12 and up.

This book was purchased for my personal library.

For an interesting story about how Kathryn Atwood touched history while writing Women Heroes of World War II, please visit  http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/511628-touching-history to read her story.

            For the last 30 days, I have been introduced to and celebrated a wide variety of other incredibly strong, brave, daring women.  Among their accomplishments, they are trailblazers who broke barriers, crossed lines, saved lives and gave us beautiful music.  These women certainly embody the theme “Our History Is Our Strength.” They all refused to live in the margins of their time, and we are women who refuse to let they live in the margins of history.  And now we have come to the last day of celebrating Women’s History Month and since I can’t say let the celebrations begin, I will say

                                       Let the Celebrations Continue!

Editor's Note: 
Watch for a final wrap-up post tomorrow from organizers Margo and Lisa!  

I'll Pass for Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War

March 29 - Today's post provided by Anita Silvey



          Before I ever attempted to write I’ll Pass for Your Comrade: Women Soldiers in the Civil War, I worked as a family historian, or genealogist, for about twenty years. In that time I discovered why I knew only the first name of so many of my female ancestors. I grew to understand why a matrilineal descent line – from mother to mother to mother – is the toughest assignment in genealogy. I also learned to value small details, such as the mention of several quilts in a family will. At least I knew that this great-grandmother created them and that the family valued her work highly.

            When I took on the project of writing about the 1,000 women who defied convention, put on men’s clothing, and went to fight in the Civil War, I knew that in many cases I would be building my book on small pieces of evidence. Sometimes all that we have of one of these soldiers is literally their bones, later identified when burial grounds were moved. For other women only one record exists – a newspaper article, a letter from a male soldier, or a detail in a Civil War regimental history.

            Often my fabulous editor Dinah Stevenson would ask about a woman that I had presented in a paragraph, “Tell me the rest of her story. What happened to her?” Almost always, the answer to Dinah would be, “we don’t know. That is all we know about her.”

            I admire Laurie Halse Anderson’s Independent Dames because she found an ideal format to utilize scraps of history to present the accomplishments of women. But I was writing a photo-essay of 112 pages. Hence I decided to devote each chapter to one of the stages of being a soldier – motivation, enlistment, training, battle, hospitals, prison camps, and coming home. Then for each one I selected a woman who left many records of her life– books, autobiographies, or letters – and allowed her to carry much of the chapter. Then I added in small vignettes about other women, less well-known, less recorded. To create a composite picture of the life of a female Civil War soldier, I had to become a quilter of words and images.

          In this book, I pay tribute to these independent, idealistic, and driven women, who went to any length to do what they wanted to do. Like my female ancestors, they deserve to have their accomplishments recorded -- even if that means that as writers we have to work harder, be extremely creative, and do extensive research to reconstruct their stories.

Editor's Note:

Anita Silvey's latest project is the Children's Book-A-Day Almanac.  Find out more about Anita Silvey on her website.

Aviator, Nurse, Soldier, Spy--Reflections on Women's History Month from author Marissa Moss

March 10 - Today's post provided by Marissa Moss

I love stumbling on little-known stories that grab my imagination and sense of history.  Those are the stories I turn into books, the tales of courage and achievement against the odds that deserve to be widely known.  Is it a coincidence that many of these undiscovered gems are about women? 

            Women have mostly been absent from the grand epic of history.  The ones that are recognized are an elite few, Queen Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, Marie Curie.  Much more fascinating to me are the ordinary women doing extraordinary things.

            Maggie Gee is one such woman.   I found her in a local newspaper story about WWII veterans, published naturally on veteran’s day.  I didn’t know that women had flown warplanes in WWII and it seemed like an important story for kids (and adults) to know about. 



President Obama signing the order to give the WASP
the Congressional Medal of Honor.

            I looked Maggie up in the phone book, called her and asked for an interview.  That interview and the many conversations that followed became SKY HIGH:  THE TRUE STORY OF MAGGIE GEE.  What impressed me about Maggie was her drive, her optimism, her courage.  She didn’t see barriers, but opportunities.  Sure, there was discrimination against her, both as a woman, and as a Chinese-American, but she barely mentioned such problems when she talked about her life.  Although her mother had lost her U.S. citizenship when she married Maggie’s father, a Chinese immigrant, that didn’t deter her from working as a welder on Liberty ships during the war, nor from encouraging her daughter to join the Women’s Army Service Pilots.  After the WASP were disbanded, Maggie went on to charge through more doors, becoming a physicist and working on weapon systems at the Lawrence Livermore labs, another job that was rare for a woman, let alone an Asian-American woman.

            I thought of Maggie’s grit, her enthusiasm for taking risks and following her dreams, when I started looking for a Civil War story.  I wanted to find a woman who had made similar daring choices, but I wasn’t sure where to look.   So I read widely, about both the North and the South.  I learned that more than 400 women had disguised themselves as men and fought as soldiers for one side or the other.  Could one of those women be the story I wanted?

            I plowed through books about nurses, soldiers, spies, but they all lacked some essential characteristic.  Some were there to be with a husband, brother, father, or fiancé.  Some were adventurous, but not particularly patriotic or admirable.  Very few cared about the issue of slavery.

            Sorting through all these women, I found one that seemed promising.  The first book I read about her didn’t tell me much, but it gave me enough of a sense that I wanted to learn more.  When I saw she’d written her own memoir of her soldiering life, that I could hear in her own voice her motives and intentions, it was like finding a treasure trove. 

            That woman was Sara Emma Edmonds, aka Frank Thompson.  She was everything I’d hoped for – she had integrity, bravery, loyalty to the Union.  As a bonus, she wrote movingly about the horrors and wrongs of slavery.  But there was more.   Edmonds was the only woman to successfully petition the government after the war for status as a veteran.  She wanted her charge of desertion changed to an honorable discharge, and she wanted a pension for her years of service.  Suffering from malaria she’d caught in the Virgina peninsula campaign early in the war, she needed medical care she couldn’t afford without it.

            It took several years and two separate acts of Congress, but Edmonds received the legal recognition she so richly deserved.  Men she’d served with testified on her behalf, praising her steadiness under fire, her work as a battlefield nurse, a general’s adjutant, a postmaster, and even a spy. 

            Hers was a great story, a vast canvas that covered many of the pivotal battles of the war.  Now that I’d found my subject, I had to shape this big life into a book.  And a short book at that.  I first wrote about Sara Emma Edmonds for a picture book, choosing to showcase her first spy mission, one emblematic event to stand for such a complicated life.  That text became NURSE, SOLDIER, SPY, beautifully illustrated by John Hendrix, and published this April by Abrams. 

            As pleased as I was with the picture book, there was so much more to say about Sara than could fit in that constrained format.  I went on to write a middle-grade novel, with the luxury of chapter upon chapter to unfold the many facets of Sara.   I could show her tenderness as a nurse, her bravery as a postmaster on lonely roads known for ambushes, her fierce loyalty to her fellow-soldiers in battle, her quick-thinking as a spy.  And I could show the loneliness and stress that her disguise cost her, the burden of living a lie on a deeply ethical and honest person.

            Sara had to dress as a man to serve the country she loved.  Maggie could enlist, but had her opportunities curbed because she was a woman.  Women in the military today aren’t officially allowed “in combat,” but since they’re in active combat zones, they face the same risks as the men without the same possibilities for promotion and recognition.  One hundred and fifty years after the Civil War, woman are still living little known stories that we’ll only learn about later.  Someday we’ll read about how courageous and capable they’ve been in Afghanistan and Iraq.  As they’ve always been, whenever they’ve been given the chance or secretly taken it.

            I dedicated NURSE, SOLDIER, SPY to Maggie.  It seemed fitting.  But I could have dedicated it to the women everywhere, throughout the years, who have defied stereotypes and proven themselves to be as brave and bold as the men around them.

Editor's Note:

Want to know more about California author and illustrator, Marissa Moss?  Check out her website, www.marissamoss.com

Marissa Moss is also the author of Mighty Jackie: The Strikeout Queen, a true story of a young girl who pitched against Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, and Brave Harriet, the story of Harriet Quimby, the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel.