Got that straight? Let me explain:
Mary E. Walker, a 1855 graduate of Syracuse Medical College, tried to join the Union Army as a medic and was rejected. So she volunteered as a nurse and then as a surgeon. She was captured and released and in 1866 was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor. After the war, she lectured on women's rights, wearing full male evening dress--wing collar, bow tie and top hat--and that medal. In 1917 the government requested she return her medal. They said it was because she had never officially been in the military but many believed it was really the clothing that did it. Seventy years later President Jimmy Carter restored her award!
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