WEBVTT - Dr. Mary Walker's True North 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:24.356 Pushkin. A woman walked down a street in Lower Manhattan. 0:00:24.756 --> 0:00:27.036 A group of boys and men followed her. It was 0:00:27.116 --> 0:00:31.836 early June eighteen sixty six. The crowd was rowdy, jeering, pushing, 0:00:32.196 --> 0:00:34.516 trying to get a clearer view of this person who 0:00:34.596 --> 0:00:39.596 had been called a thing, a monstrosity. The woman was small, 0:00:39.636 --> 0:00:43.156 barely five feet. She had dark hair and a round face, 0:00:43.436 --> 0:00:48.836 porcelain skin. Her shoulders were back, her eyes unafraid, she 0:00:48.956 --> 0:00:52.676 kept walking. The crowd of hecklers grew bigger. They hurled 0:00:52.716 --> 0:00:56.236 insults and threatened to throw worse. Finally, a policeman was 0:00:56.236 --> 0:01:00.516 called to disperse the mob. Instead, he arrested the woman. 0:01:00.996 --> 0:01:03.596 He grabbed her roughly by the arm and marched her 0:01:03.636 --> 0:01:07.436 to the station house. Her crime was a crime against 0:01:07.476 --> 0:01:12.036 the community. She was ware barring pants, and that, in 0:01:12.076 --> 0:01:15.076 eighteen sixty six was enough to cause a ride of 0:01:15.156 --> 0:01:18.236 outrage and horror in New York City, of all places. 0:01:19.436 --> 0:01:22.076 But there was something else she was wearing too. Pinned 0:01:22.116 --> 0:01:25.556 to her chest, just above her heart was the Medal 0:01:25.596 --> 0:01:31.236 of Honor. H I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and this is Medal 0:01:31.236 --> 0:01:34.356 of Honor. Stories of courage. The Medal of Honor is 0:01:34.396 --> 0:01:38.196 the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded for 0:01:38.396 --> 0:01:41.996 gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life, 0:01:42.276 --> 0:01:45.796 above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must 0:01:45.836 --> 0:01:48.276 be approved all the way up the chain of command, 0:01:48.516 --> 0:01:52.036 from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. 0:01:52.996 --> 0:01:55.996 This show is about those heroes, what they did, what 0:01:56.036 --> 0:01:58.756 it meant, and what their stories tell us about the 0:01:58.836 --> 0:02:03.196 nature of courage and sacrifice. Today you're going to meet 0:02:03.396 --> 0:02:07.236 doctor Mary Walker, the first and so far the only 0:02:07.316 --> 0:02:10.116 woman to have been awarded the Medal of Honor. She 0:02:10.196 --> 0:02:13.116 worked as a surgeon during the Civil War, saving the 0:02:13.156 --> 0:02:16.476 lives of Union soldiers. She was there at the famous 0:02:16.476 --> 0:02:21.756 battles of Fredericksburg, Chickamauga, and Gettysburg. She crossed into dangerous 0:02:21.876 --> 0:02:25.436 enemy territory to take care of civilians in need. She 0:02:25.556 --> 0:02:29.196 was a prison of war and all her life Mary 0:02:29.236 --> 0:02:33.476 fought for equal rights, not just for women, for everyone. 0:02:33.716 --> 0:02:37.076 She saw the potential for extraordinary social reform at a 0:02:37.116 --> 0:02:40.716 time when everyone else was just pointing and laughing at 0:02:40.716 --> 0:02:44.916 her pants. Mary Walker's story is about the power of 0:02:44.956 --> 0:02:48.236 a moral compass. We all have one, of course, but 0:02:48.396 --> 0:02:51.236 some people have a compass that holds a little faster. 0:02:51.836 --> 0:02:54.636 They follow it more faithfully, even when it sets them 0:02:54.636 --> 0:02:58.476 on a path that's rocky and lonely and filled with hazards. 0:02:59.716 --> 0:03:10.476 Mary Walker was one of those. Mary was born in 0:03:10.516 --> 0:03:14.076 eighteen thirty two in Oswego, New York, the fifth daughter 0:03:14.316 --> 0:03:18.036 of two free thinking farmers. Back then, that part of 0:03:18.116 --> 0:03:21.716 upstate New York was a hotbed of progressive ideas. It 0:03:21.836 --> 0:03:25.476 was the center of the abolitionist movement. The first Women's 0:03:25.556 --> 0:03:29.076 Rights Convention was held in nearby Seneca Falls when Mary 0:03:29.156 --> 0:03:32.276 was sixteen. All of the avant garde trends of the 0:03:32.316 --> 0:03:37.076 nineteenth century were right there. Utopian socialism, the temperance movement, 0:03:37.396 --> 0:03:42.956 spiritualism and seances, vegetarianism. If it was radical, it was 0:03:43.036 --> 0:03:46.836 in the air, and Mary was breathing it in. Belief 0:03:46.876 --> 0:03:50.796 in equality was table stakes in the Walker house. People 0:03:50.836 --> 0:03:54.436 fleeing slavery would come to the Walker family's white framed 0:03:54.476 --> 0:03:57.156 farm house in the middle of the night. It was 0:03:57.236 --> 0:04:00.236 a stop on the underground railroad, the network used by 0:04:00.316 --> 0:04:03.996 enslaved people running to freedom in the Northern States in Canada. 0:04:04.796 --> 0:04:07.676 Early on, her parents taught her how important it was 0:04:07.756 --> 0:04:11.796 to fight for justice. Mary and her sisters were educated 0:04:11.836 --> 0:04:15.236 well into their teens very rare in those days, and 0:04:15.276 --> 0:04:17.156 when young Mary announced that she was going to be 0:04:17.196 --> 0:04:20.436 a doctor, her parents were all for it, even though 0:04:20.676 --> 0:04:24.676 there were no women doctors at the time. The first 0:04:24.756 --> 0:04:28.036 woman doctor in the US wouldn't graduate from medical school 0:04:28.116 --> 0:04:31.716 until years later, eighteen forty nine. Just a year earlier, 0:04:31.956 --> 0:04:34.756 a prominent doctor, the leading expert at the time in 0:04:34.836 --> 0:04:38.436 women's medicine and obstetrics, and a man, of course, had 0:04:38.436 --> 0:04:41.636 announced that a woman quote has a head almost too 0:04:41.636 --> 0:04:45.236 small for the intellect, but just large enough for love. 0:04:46.596 --> 0:04:49.116 But Mary found a new medical college that was co ed. 0:04:49.556 --> 0:04:52.516 She started when she was twenty one. There she met 0:04:52.516 --> 0:04:54.756 a man who was also studying to become a doctor. 0:04:55.116 --> 0:04:58.276 They fell in love and got married. You don't really 0:04:58.316 --> 0:05:00.796 need to know about her husband, truth be told, he's 0:05:00.836 --> 0:05:03.476 the least interesting part of Mary's story, but you do 0:05:03.596 --> 0:05:06.996 need to know about the wedding. It was remarkable for 0:05:07.076 --> 0:05:12.716 three reasons. First, Mary insisted on striking obey from the 0:05:12.796 --> 0:05:17.436 vows common now but unheard of then. Second, she didn't 0:05:17.476 --> 0:05:20.676 take her husband's name. And third, and take note of 0:05:20.716 --> 0:05:23.436 this one because it's going to be a theme, she 0:05:23.516 --> 0:05:30.156 wore pants instead of a wedding gown pants. You're going 0:05:30.196 --> 0:05:32.356 to hear about one of the truly extraordinary women of 0:05:32.356 --> 0:05:36.196 the late nineteenth century whose feats of bravery were remarkable. 0:05:36.596 --> 0:05:40.076 But it's all going to keep coming back to the pants. 0:05:40.636 --> 0:05:43.876 Mary didn't believe in the corsets and heavy layered skirts 0:05:44.076 --> 0:05:47.676 that ladies were expected to wear. They were just uncomfortable. 0:05:47.716 --> 0:05:51.636 She said they were unhealthy. She was an unwavering supporter 0:05:51.916 --> 0:05:56.916 of something called the reform dress, an uncorseted calf length 0:05:56.996 --> 0:06:02.196 dress worn over a sensible pair of trousers. Mary saw 0:06:02.196 --> 0:06:06.036 the reform dress as practical. The rest of the world 0:06:06.436 --> 0:06:09.836 saw it as completely ridiculous. I'm going to have my 0:06:09.916 --> 0:06:14.236 co conspirator on this podcast, Meredith Rollins, read Mary's words. 0:06:14.636 --> 0:06:17.636 It's not just because she wrote this episode. It's because 0:06:18.236 --> 0:06:19.516 she's kind of very obsessed. 0:06:20.396 --> 0:06:23.476 My studies in anatomy taught me the heinousness of the 0:06:23.516 --> 0:06:26.676 crime against nature committed by the women who wore the 0:06:26.716 --> 0:06:31.076 barbarous corseted dress. But the fools of men are repulsed 0:06:31.076 --> 0:06:34.316 by the reform dress because they think it's wearer must 0:06:34.356 --> 0:06:35.956 be a strong minded woman. 0:06:36.836 --> 0:06:39.836 Strong minded is an understatement when it comes to Mary. 0:06:40.276 --> 0:06:43.676 She didn't just wear pants. She shouted their benefits from 0:06:43.676 --> 0:06:47.556 the rooftops. She wrote articles and went on lecture tours. 0:06:47.876 --> 0:06:51.556 When Mary believed in something, she went in hard. It 0:06:51.636 --> 0:06:52.556 was just who she was. 0:06:53.236 --> 0:06:55.756 I was naturally timid as a girl, but had to 0:06:55.796 --> 0:06:59.956 overcome this through strong convictions of duty. I have felt 0:06:59.956 --> 0:07:02.596 that I must do what I believed was right, regardless 0:07:02.636 --> 0:07:06.036 of consequences. I do not deserve credit for standing up 0:07:06.076 --> 0:07:10.636 to my principles, for I could not do a wives. 0:07:12.196 --> 0:07:15.956 Mary and her husband opened a medical practice together, but 0:07:16.116 --> 0:07:19.556 patients didn't seem to be interested in a trouser clad 0:07:19.596 --> 0:07:23.676 woman doctor. Her husband, it turns out, wasn't interested either. 0:07:24.156 --> 0:07:28.956 They got divorced. No marriage, no patience. So in eighteen 0:07:29.036 --> 0:07:32.196 sixty one, at the age of twenty eight, Mary lit 0:07:32.236 --> 0:07:35.116 out for Washington, d C. She was a die hard 0:07:35.196 --> 0:07:39.236 abolitionist and a patriot. The Civil War had just begun 0:07:39.356 --> 0:07:43.956 and wounded soldiers poured into the capital. Mary wanted to help. 0:07:44.596 --> 0:07:46.596 She made up her mind that she would join the 0:07:46.596 --> 0:07:50.436 federal army as a surgeon. It didn't matter that the 0:07:50.556 --> 0:07:53.556 army had no interest in hiring a woman doctor. Why 0:07:53.556 --> 0:07:56.756 would that small detail matter to Mary? When she got 0:07:56.796 --> 0:07:59.876 to d C. Mary appealed directly to the Secretary of 0:07:59.956 --> 0:08:04.396 War and asked for a military commission. When he refused, 0:08:04.756 --> 0:08:08.436 she offered her services for free at a local hospital. 0:08:08.836 --> 0:08:10.356 Then she wrote home to her. 0:08:10.196 --> 0:08:13.676 Family, I suppose you all expected me to go to war, 0:08:13.836 --> 0:08:16.396 and I thought it would be too cruel to disappoint you. 0:08:17.196 --> 0:08:38.156 Mary did not disappoint We'll be right back. It was 0:08:38.236 --> 0:08:42.276 December of eighteen sixty two. More than two hundred thousand 0:08:42.316 --> 0:08:46.956 soldiers were fighting over Fredericksburg, Virginia, a sleepy river town 0:08:47.236 --> 0:08:51.596 located midway between d C And Richmond. The Confederate forces 0:08:51.796 --> 0:08:55.276 were holding an impenetrable line with rifle and artillery fire. 0:08:55.956 --> 0:08:59.676 As the Union soldiers advanced, wave after wave of them 0:09:00.156 --> 0:09:03.996 just got shot down. By the end, twelve thousand to 0:09:04.116 --> 0:09:07.236 five hundred men from the Union Army of the Potomac 0:09:07.396 --> 0:09:11.596 were dead or dying on the battlefield. Those who could 0:09:11.636 --> 0:09:15.556 be saved were brought to Lacey House, a plantation owner's 0:09:15.596 --> 0:09:20.396 mansion turned makeshift hospital, and there was Mary right in 0:09:20.436 --> 0:09:23.756 the middle of it, working by lamplight to save the wounded. 0:09:24.156 --> 0:09:28.076 She tended teenage soldiers as they underwent brutal and often 0:09:28.196 --> 0:09:32.036 lethal amputations. Doctors of the time believed it was better 0:09:32.156 --> 0:09:35.876 and more expedient to saw off a damaged limb instead 0:09:35.876 --> 0:09:39.196 of trying to save it. Mary disagreed, but she wasn't 0:09:39.196 --> 0:09:42.716 in charge. She didn't have her military commission. She was 0:09:42.756 --> 0:09:47.156 still a volunteer. The poet Walt Whitman was at Fredericksburg 0:09:47.516 --> 0:09:51.236 searching for his younger brother George. He described the carnage 0:09:51.276 --> 0:09:55.236 this way, a heap of feet, legs, arms, and human 0:09:55.396 --> 0:10:00.996 fragments cut bloody, black and blue, swelled and sickening. He 0:10:01.036 --> 0:10:03.596 wrote about the dead bodies lined up in the garden, 0:10:04.116 --> 0:10:08.956 each covered with its own woolen blanket. The nurse cl 0:10:09.156 --> 0:10:11.876 Raah Barton, who had later found the American Red Cross, 0:10:12.236 --> 0:10:16.236 was there too. While Mary was naturally wearing pants, Clara, 0:10:16.516 --> 0:10:20.316 like all the other women, wore long skirts. She wrote later, 0:10:20.996 --> 0:10:23.356 I wrung the blood from the bottom of my clothing 0:10:23.676 --> 0:10:27.436 before I could step for the weight about my feet. 0:10:29.036 --> 0:10:32.796 Mary darted from one patient to another, trying desperately to 0:10:32.836 --> 0:10:36.756 stave off infection and disease. This was before antiseptics were 0:10:36.756 --> 0:10:40.636 widely used, and surgeons would wipe their bloody instruments on 0:10:40.756 --> 0:10:44.276 their aprons and move on to the next man. The 0:10:44.316 --> 0:10:48.636 new York Tribune described her this way. Dressed in male habliments, 0:10:48.796 --> 0:10:51.716 she carries herself amid the camp with a jaunty air 0:10:51.756 --> 0:10:55.996 of dignity, well calculated to receive the sincere respect of 0:10:56.036 --> 0:10:59.476 the soldiers. She can amputate a limb with the skill 0:10:59.556 --> 0:11:03.036 of an old surgeon, and administer medicine equally as well. 0:11:03.796 --> 0:11:06.996 Strange to say that, although she has frequently applied for 0:11:07.076 --> 0:11:10.036 a permanent position in the medical court or she has 0:11:10.116 --> 0:11:14.836 never been formally assigned to any particular duty. It would 0:11:14.836 --> 0:11:18.956 take another three years for that to change. In February 0:11:19.036 --> 0:11:22.076 of eighteen sixty four, Mary made her way to Georgia. 0:11:22.716 --> 0:11:26.116 She was going to join the fifty second Ohio Volunteers 0:11:26.116 --> 0:11:29.556 in Gordon's Mills on the muddy banks of the Chickamauga River. 0:11:30.076 --> 0:11:36.316 Her title contract Civilian assistant Surgeon. It still wasn't an 0:11:36.356 --> 0:11:39.516 official military commission, but it was the best rank she 0:11:39.516 --> 0:11:43.476 could get, and she was finally getting paid like any 0:11:43.476 --> 0:11:47.556 other soldier. Also, for the first time, she was allowed 0:11:47.556 --> 0:11:51.116 to wear the uniform of a military surgeon. Mary was 0:11:51.156 --> 0:11:54.276 the only woman doctor on either side of the conflict, 0:11:54.676 --> 0:11:58.996 so her outfit was appropriately unique. A long dress like 0:11:59.076 --> 0:12:06.276 jacket with the official surgeons green sash and pants. By now, 0:12:06.316 --> 0:12:08.436 she had grown her hair as long as she could, 0:12:08.676 --> 0:12:11.996 so that everybody would know she was a woman. The 0:12:12.036 --> 0:12:13.916 men in charge saw the fact that she was a 0:12:13.956 --> 0:12:16.796 woman as a bad thing. Mary saw it as the 0:12:16.836 --> 0:12:19.596 complete opposite, a fantastic bonus. 0:12:20.356 --> 0:12:22.596 My education has cost me as much as that of 0:12:22.636 --> 0:12:26.116 my learned brothers has cost them. I have had far 0:12:26.196 --> 0:12:29.516 greater difficulties to overcome, and if any difference is to 0:12:29.556 --> 0:12:31.716 be made, it ought to be in favor of the 0:12:31.756 --> 0:12:32.596 female physician. 0:12:33.716 --> 0:12:37.516 Mary was always her own biggest cheerleader, and just as 0:12:37.556 --> 0:12:40.476 she had learned back home in Oswego, she was always 0:12:40.636 --> 0:12:45.636 keenly attuned to suffering and injustice around her. The fifty 0:12:45.636 --> 0:12:49.916 second Ohio Volunteers were stationed very close to Confederate health territory, 0:12:50.276 --> 0:12:53.876 so skirmishes with the enemy were common. But as Mary 0:12:54.036 --> 0:12:57.036 rode out from camp each day to tend to the troops, 0:12:57.396 --> 0:13:00.516 she couldn't ignore the fact that Union soldiers weren't the 0:13:00.556 --> 0:13:04.556 only ones suffering. Southern civilians had been ravaged by the 0:13:04.596 --> 0:13:08.436 war too, and they had no medical care. Their doctors 0:13:08.636 --> 0:13:14.236 had been rafted into the war long ago. Despite her 0:13:14.276 --> 0:13:18.436 disgust for the rebel ideological cause. Mary asked her commanding 0:13:18.476 --> 0:13:21.556 officer for permission to help the local settlements. 0:13:22.116 --> 0:13:25.116 Both armies had been upon the ground, but the Confederate 0:13:25.236 --> 0:13:29.276 Army had been all through there, pressing every man into service, 0:13:29.796 --> 0:13:32.716 even those that were too young. And it left the women, 0:13:32.756 --> 0:13:36.996 as they said, to root, hog or die. I cannot 0:13:37.036 --> 0:13:39.476 tell you how sincerely I pitied those people. 0:13:40.996 --> 0:13:44.636 She spent whatever spare time she had helping children and widows, 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:49.476 treating typhoid and pulling teeth and delivering babies. Because she 0:13:49.596 --> 0:13:52.956 was often traveling alone, she kept two revolvers hidden in 0:13:53.036 --> 0:13:57.876 her saddlebags. But Mary was Mary, so she had to 0:13:57.916 --> 0:14:01.036 add an extra layer of complication to whatever she was doing. 0:14:01.756 --> 0:14:05.516 She wasn't just helping the civilians. She was working as 0:14:05.556 --> 0:14:11.796 a spy William Tacumsas Sherman, who was preparing to march 0:14:11.876 --> 0:14:16.076 on Atlanta. And while Mary was out doctoring, she was 0:14:16.116 --> 0:14:20.596 gathering information, listening to gossip, watching for movements in the 0:14:20.636 --> 0:14:25.156 communities she was serving. Later, the Judge Advocate General would 0:14:25.156 --> 0:14:29.396 write that Mary quote gained information that led General Sherman 0:14:29.876 --> 0:14:34.316 to so modify his strategic operations as to save himself 0:14:34.516 --> 0:14:38.836 from a serious reverse and obtained success or defeat before 0:14:38.916 --> 0:14:42.596 seemed to be inevitable. This is the other way that 0:14:42.676 --> 0:14:46.236 being a woman doctor was uniquely useful to Mary. She 0:14:46.356 --> 0:14:49.596 was in the perfect disguise a woman doctor. He was 0:14:49.636 --> 0:14:53.996 simply too insane to take seriously. But soon enough her 0:14:54.076 --> 0:14:57.596 luck ran out. She was captured and arrested outside of 0:14:57.676 --> 0:15:02.156 Union lines. In April eighteen sixty four. The Confederates sent 0:15:02.196 --> 0:15:05.196 her to prison in Richmond, Virginia. It was called and 0:15:05.276 --> 0:15:11.396 I Love this Castle Thunder. A captain witnessed Mary's arrival 0:15:11.436 --> 0:15:14.916 in Richmond and wrote, we were all amused and disgusted 0:15:14.956 --> 0:15:18.156 too at the sight of a thing that nothing but 0:15:18.196 --> 0:15:22.556 the debased and depraved Yankee nation could produce, a female doctor. 0:15:23.596 --> 0:15:27.716 Castle Thunder was situated in a former tobacco warehouse, a 0:15:27.796 --> 0:15:31.196 hulking three story brick building with bars on the windows. 0:15:31.796 --> 0:15:37.396 It was a notorious place, overcrowded and filthy. Disease was rampant. Mary, 0:15:37.676 --> 0:15:41.476 like all of the inmates, quickly became malnourished, slowly starving 0:15:41.476 --> 0:15:44.836 to death because true to form, she was giving her 0:15:44.836 --> 0:15:46.756 food away to people who needed it more. 0:15:47.556 --> 0:15:51.636 The peas were always wormy, the rice was musty or 0:15:51.676 --> 0:15:56.716 contained vermin, the bacon in several instances, was so rotten 0:15:56.996 --> 0:16:00.036 that its odor was unendurable to me after it was served. 0:16:00.596 --> 0:16:03.196 But it was never so bad that I always found 0:16:03.316 --> 0:16:05.356 someone who would gladly accept my ration. 0:16:06.676 --> 0:16:09.756 The theme of this whole story has been how indomitable 0:16:09.796 --> 0:16:13.076 Mary was, but this is the part that nearly broke her. 0:16:13.716 --> 0:16:16.396 The prison guards kept gas lamps burning day and night, 0:16:16.756 --> 0:16:20.316 which let off toxic smoke, and Mary's eyes got infected. 0:16:20.956 --> 0:16:24.236 She tried to keep her spirits up, writing jolly letters home, 0:16:24.516 --> 0:16:27.756 promising her parents that she would soon be exchanged for 0:16:27.876 --> 0:16:32.156 a Confederate prisoner and return to safety. She was, as 0:16:32.156 --> 0:16:36.956 ever optimistic, but that prisoner exchange took longer than Mary 0:16:36.996 --> 0:16:40.676 had hoped. Her release was delayed over and over again. 0:16:41.236 --> 0:16:46.436 She slowly grew weaker, her eyesight got worse. It might 0:16:46.476 --> 0:16:49.476 have occurred to a less confident person that the army 0:16:49.676 --> 0:16:52.476 that never really wanted her wouldn't be fighting very hard 0:16:52.476 --> 0:16:56.556 to get her back, but Mary never saw herself that way. 0:16:57.676 --> 0:17:02.756 Her compass held even when things were at their worst. 0:17:03.436 --> 0:17:05.756 She believed she had so much to offer the world 0:17:06.076 --> 0:17:08.876 that she would never be forgotten or ignored. 0:17:10.156 --> 0:17:19.716 As she put it, I will always be as somebody. 0:17:17.436 --> 0:17:29.076 More on Mary. After a quick break. Seven months into 0:17:29.076 --> 0:17:34.276 his presidency, Andrew Johnson was facing a truly annoying problem. 0:17:34.556 --> 0:17:37.796 There was this woman. She had spent years in Washington, 0:17:37.876 --> 0:17:41.396 d c. And the capital in those years operated like 0:17:41.436 --> 0:17:45.796 a small town. This lady knew everyone, the late President 0:17:45.836 --> 0:17:50.156 Lincoln and the future President Grant, Frederick Douglas, and Susan B. Anthony. 0:17:50.596 --> 0:17:53.996 She was like a pine size zelig in pants. We're 0:17:54.036 --> 0:17:57.356 talking about Mary, but she figured that out already. It 0:17:57.396 --> 0:18:00.076 was November of eighteen sixty five. The war was over, 0:18:00.396 --> 0:18:03.036 and Mary was determined to get the government to acknowledge 0:18:03.036 --> 0:18:06.676 the work that she'd done. By God, she wanted her commission. 0:18:07.196 --> 0:18:10.316 She started a letter writing campaign. She showed up at 0:18:10.316 --> 0:18:13.316 people's offices. She was no longer working as a surgeon. 0:18:13.636 --> 0:18:16.836 After about five months at Castle Thunder, the Confederate prison, 0:18:17.156 --> 0:18:20.676 her eyesight was permanently damaged, so she had plenty of 0:18:20.716 --> 0:18:25.756 time for her other great passion, pestering the government. She 0:18:25.876 --> 0:18:30.276 believed that women, not just herself, but all women, deserve 0:18:30.436 --> 0:18:33.076 credit and payment for their war efforts. 0:18:33.876 --> 0:18:38.076 Not until this cruel war has ceased and peace shall 0:18:38.116 --> 0:18:41.876 again be ours at a dozen histories be written containing 0:18:42.156 --> 0:18:46.236 all the facts and events. Not I say, until then 0:18:46.796 --> 0:18:51.836 shall the world know how much women have done. 0:18:52.516 --> 0:18:55.236 President Johnson must have been desperate for Mary to leave 0:18:55.276 --> 0:18:58.516 him alone. He convened a group of officials to figure 0:18:58.516 --> 0:19:00.716 out what to do about her, and they came up 0:19:00.756 --> 0:19:04.236 with an answer, the Medal of Honor. Let me give 0:19:04.236 --> 0:19:07.036 this a little context. The Medal of Honor had only 0:19:07.076 --> 0:19:10.556 been created four years earlier away for the federal military 0:19:10.836 --> 0:19:15.076 to incentivize new troops to sign up. In this early incarnation, 0:19:15.436 --> 0:19:18.836 the medal wasn't just awarded to the most extraordinary heroes 0:19:19.036 --> 0:19:22.876 as it is today. It was the only military award 0:19:22.916 --> 0:19:26.116 at the time, so it went to pretty much everyone 0:19:26.316 --> 0:19:30.676 who did something special. One thousand, five hundred and twenty 0:19:30.716 --> 0:19:33.636 two people got the Medal of Honor for their service 0:19:33.756 --> 0:19:36.996 in a civil war. To put that into perspective, that's 0:19:37.036 --> 0:19:40.596 almost half of the medals ever awarded to this day. 0:19:41.596 --> 0:19:46.876 What Mary really wanted was that retroactive military commission, because 0:19:46.916 --> 0:19:50.116 it would have meant a pension, plus she saw commission 0:19:50.316 --> 0:19:53.716 as a useful wedge. It might open the door so 0:19:53.756 --> 0:19:57.956 that other women could join the military. But while Mary 0:19:57.996 --> 0:20:01.116 saw a commission as a useful wedge, to the military 0:20:01.116 --> 0:20:05.836 brass it was a slippery slope straight to chaos. Imagine 0:20:05.876 --> 0:20:08.836 thousands of Mary's just telling you what they think, wearing 0:20:08.876 --> 0:20:13.796 pale terrifying. So instead they gave her the Medal of Honor. 0:20:14.356 --> 0:20:18.156 The Judge Advocate General wrote to President Johnson saying, this 0:20:18.356 --> 0:20:20.436 really was the way to go, and there was no 0:20:20.556 --> 0:20:25.476 danger of a slippery slope because Mary's quote sacrifices her 0:20:25.516 --> 0:20:29.956 fearless energy under circumstances of peril, her endurance of hardship 0:20:30.316 --> 0:20:33.236 and imprisonment at the hands of the enemy, and especially 0:20:33.756 --> 0:20:38.676 her active patriotism and eminent loyalty end of quote were 0:20:38.756 --> 0:20:42.156 so singular that giving her the Medal of Honor wouldn't 0:20:42.156 --> 0:20:45.836 set a precedent. He believed it was simply impossible for 0:20:45.916 --> 0:20:50.716 it to ever happen. Again. That certainly proved to be prescient. 0:20:51.476 --> 0:20:54.116 She is still the only woman to have been awarded 0:20:54.116 --> 0:20:57.676 the Medal of Honor. Mary was delighted by the medal. 0:20:57.916 --> 0:21:00.356 The men in charge believed she would now go away, 0:21:01.116 --> 0:21:04.836 But we know Mary, she wasn't going to go away. Instead, 0:21:05.196 --> 0:21:08.476 she used the medal to give herself an even bigger platform, 0:21:09.156 --> 0:21:11.476 a way to keep talking about the things that mattered 0:21:11.516 --> 0:21:16.276 to her, and that she believed should matter to everyone. 0:21:16.436 --> 0:21:20.316 It is literally impossible for one with any force of 0:21:20.436 --> 0:21:24.756 character and humanity to remain in the background when convinced 0:21:24.796 --> 0:21:27.876 by knowledge and reason that their mission is one that 0:21:27.916 --> 0:21:29.796 will result in great good. 0:21:30.796 --> 0:21:33.636 Here's the thing. She wasn't just working as a surgeon 0:21:33.796 --> 0:21:37.316 during the war. She had all these charitable side hustles. 0:21:37.956 --> 0:21:40.796 She had worked as an advocate for the disabled and 0:21:40.876 --> 0:21:44.516 for soldiers who'd been unfairly accused of deserting. She had 0:21:44.556 --> 0:21:48.676 founded the Women's Relief Organization, which gave housing to wives 0:21:48.676 --> 0:21:52.796 and mothers of wounded Union army men. She was constantly 0:21:52.956 --> 0:21:56.876 advocating for social change, and now with the Medal of 0:21:56.876 --> 0:22:00.716 Honor pinned to her chest, Mary took her advocacy on 0:22:00.916 --> 0:22:05.116 tour as usual. The topics she picked were decades ahead 0:22:05.116 --> 0:22:11.396 of her time. She lectured on universal suffrage, indigenous people's rights, 0:22:11.756 --> 0:22:14.996 the health risks of tobacco. She was the first woman 0:22:15.036 --> 0:22:17.476 to give an address from the Speaker of the House's 0:22:17.556 --> 0:22:21.996 desk uninvited. Of course, she ran for office even when 0:22:21.996 --> 0:22:27.716 she couldn't vote. Then, in January eighteen seventy two, all 0:22:27.756 --> 0:22:31.876 of her fighting scored an actual victory on Mary's behalf. 0:22:32.476 --> 0:22:37.516 United States Congressman Benjamin Butler, a former Union general, introduced 0:22:37.516 --> 0:22:40.476 a bill to the House that would benefit quote all 0:22:40.556 --> 0:22:43.156 the women who labored for the sick and wounded during 0:22:43.196 --> 0:22:47.476 the late war. It passed, the women would be granted 0:22:47.676 --> 0:22:51.276 twenty dollars monthly pensions roughly four hundred and sixty six 0:22:51.316 --> 0:22:55.236 dollars today, only slightly lower than the pension paid to 0:22:55.356 --> 0:22:58.916 male soldiers who had been wounded in the war. It 0:22:58.956 --> 0:23:04.076 was Mary's biggest triumph, and yet all the newspapers wanted 0:23:04.116 --> 0:23:09.236 to talk about was her pants. They reported breathlessly when 0:23:09.236 --> 0:23:11.836 she was met with those jeering crowds and police in 0:23:11.876 --> 0:23:15.316 New York. The exact same thing happened in New Orleans 0:23:16.116 --> 0:23:20.076 once she was robbed at gunpoint, and one columnist noted, 0:23:20.596 --> 0:23:23.476 if she will persist in dressing like a man, she 0:23:23.596 --> 0:23:27.116 must expect to be mistaken for a man and sometimes 0:23:27.196 --> 0:23:31.236 enjoy the inalienable right of being robbed like any other man. 0:23:32.636 --> 0:23:36.676 Mary and this must have gotten tedious for her, corrected 0:23:36.716 --> 0:23:39.116 them over and over. 0:23:39.996 --> 0:23:43.916 I do not wear men's clothes. I wear my own clothes. 0:23:44.596 --> 0:23:46.036 But it took its toll. 0:23:46.316 --> 0:23:50.396 Every jeer has cut me to the quick. Many times 0:23:50.436 --> 0:23:53.036 have I gone to my room and wept after being 0:23:53.116 --> 0:23:57.916 publicly derided. No one knows or will ever know, what 0:23:58.036 --> 0:24:00.436 it has cost me to live up to my principles, 0:24:00.716 --> 0:24:04.516 to be consistent with my convictions. But I have done it, 0:24:04.996 --> 0:24:06.676 and I am not sorry for. 0:24:06.596 --> 0:24:12.316 It, Which brings us back to theme Mary's moral compass. 0:24:12.716 --> 0:24:16.236 And how does a compass work? North is north, East 0:24:16.316 --> 0:24:19.996 is east, west is west, south is south. It doesn't 0:24:19.996 --> 0:24:22.596 have a gauge for what, say, the weather's like, or 0:24:22.676 --> 0:24:24.956 tell you if there's been a landslide and you can't 0:24:24.996 --> 0:24:28.436 actually go do north anymore because of a giant rock pile. 0:24:29.236 --> 0:24:32.716 Mary's moral compass was a little like that. It didn't 0:24:32.796 --> 0:24:36.236 really check for ground conditions. Let me give you an example. 0:24:37.076 --> 0:24:40.236 In eighteen seventy three, Mary decided she wanted a job 0:24:40.476 --> 0:24:43.916 in the US Treasury. She'd heard they were hiring women, 0:24:44.476 --> 0:24:48.556 so she marched herself into the Executive Mansion, the precursor 0:24:48.676 --> 0:24:52.236 of the White House, where President Ulysses S. Grant lived. 0:24:52.636 --> 0:24:56.716 I mean, can you imagine this today? It's bananas. She 0:24:56.796 --> 0:24:59.636 set up camp in the east room and vowed to 0:24:59.676 --> 0:25:03.356 stay until she got a position at the Treasury. Grant 0:25:03.396 --> 0:25:07.476 capitulated with two conditions, one that she never occupied the 0:25:07.556 --> 0:25:11.156 executive mansion again, and the other that she wear traditional 0:25:11.156 --> 0:25:14.996 women's clothing to work. Maybe Mary said she would do that. 0:25:15.156 --> 0:25:18.276 It seems unlikely, but she took the job, and she 0:25:18.316 --> 0:25:22.476 showed up for her first day at the Treasury wearing pants. 0:25:22.796 --> 0:25:24.836 They didn't let her in the building. She came back 0:25:24.876 --> 0:25:28.276 the following day still in pants. They turned her away again. 0:25:28.716 --> 0:25:33.196 This went on for more than a year. And that's 0:25:33.236 --> 0:25:36.996 what you don't get for standing by your unshakable moral convictions, 0:25:37.516 --> 0:25:40.276 the chance to be one of the first history making 0:25:40.316 --> 0:25:44.876 women in the Treasure department. The pants got in the way. 0:25:46.476 --> 0:25:49.836 Mary spent the following decades advocating for the causes that 0:25:49.876 --> 0:25:53.076 were dear to her heart. She traveled the country and 0:25:53.116 --> 0:25:56.316 the world on the lecture circuit, but upstate New York 0:25:56.396 --> 0:25:59.956 always called her home. She bought her parents farm house 0:26:00.276 --> 0:26:04.076 and settled near her siblings, none of whom, it's worth noting, 0:26:04.436 --> 0:26:06.956 had ever caught the activism bug in the way that 0:26:06.996 --> 0:26:10.116 Mary did. In her family, as in the rest of 0:26:10.156 --> 0:26:14.996 her life, she stood out. Over the years, Mary's reform 0:26:15.076 --> 0:26:19.316 dress evolved into a dapper suit coat, trousers, and a 0:26:19.356 --> 0:26:22.796 silk top hat. She was arrested for wearing pants one 0:26:22.876 --> 0:26:26.876 final time in nineteen thirteen, when she was eighty and 0:26:26.956 --> 0:26:31.356 walking with a cane, and then around the time the 0:26:31.436 --> 0:26:34.716