Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia was redesignated Friday as Fort Walker to honor Dr. Mary Walker, the one feminine Medal of Honor recipient, who earned the medal for heroics treating wounded troops within the Civil Battle whereas beneath hearth.
Fort Walker, a small Virginia Army set up that serves as one of many major coaching grounds for Nationwide Guard items within the area, had been named in honor of a Accomplice normal who waged warfare in opposition to the U.S.
The transfer comes after seven different installations have been scrubbed of their namesakes honoring Accomplice figures who seceded from the U.S., largely to develop and shield the slave commerce, spurring the Civil Battle.
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Walker was the primary feminine surgeon for the Union Army, usually serving close to the frontlines throughout main battles in Maryland and Virginia. She usually went past the frontlines to deal with wounded Confederates and civilians caught within the crossfire.
In 1864, Walker was captured by insurgent troops after serving to one other physician amputate a limb, and she or he was a prisoner of warfare for 4 months till she was launched in a prisoner trade.
The renaming of Army bases was ordered by Congress and adopted by a fee examine beneath the Pentagon. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin formally ordered the bases and different navy property to be renamed in October following months of base visits and group enter.
A number of the largest Army installations within the nation had been rechristened this yr, together with Fort Cavazos in Texas, beforehand often called Fort Hood, and Fort Liberty in North Carolina, beforehand Fort Bragg. Fort Gordon, Georgia, is the final base nonetheless slated to be redesignated and is ready to be renamed after President Dwight Eisenhower on Oct. 27.
Apart from Fort Liberty, the bases had been renamed after adorned service members and necessary historic figures.
Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson after the Civil Battle for her service.
However that medal was the one award on the time within the navy and it was taken away from her, together with 900 different veterans, in 1916 after a authorities evaluate of eligibility. Her medal was reinstated by President Jimmy Carter.
“[She] devoted herself with a lot patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded troopers, each within the area and hospitals, to the detriment of her personal well being, and has additionally endured hardships as a prisoner of warfare 4 months in a Southern jail whereas performing as contract surgeon,” the quotation reads.
Walker was a suffragette and advocated for so-called “costume reform.” She famously all the time wore males’s clothes, arguing it is extra hygienic and sensible. She was even arrested in New Orleans in 1870 for dressing like a person. Walker had a failed Home and Senate bid within the late nineteenth century however testified earlier than the Congress on ladies’s rights.
She died in 1919 at 86 years outdated. She was buried in a go well with as an alternative of a costume.
Ambrose Powell Hill Jr., or A.P. Hill — the bottom’s former namesake — was a comparatively extremely regarded normal among the many insurgent forces. He was killed in fight in the course of the Third Battle of Petersburg only a week earlier than the Confederacy surrendered.
— Steve Beynon could be reached at Steve.Beynon@navy.com. Comply with him on Twitter @StevenBeynon.
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