Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a surgeon and spy in the Union Army, is the only woman ever awarded the Medal of Honor. Born a hundred years ahead of her time, she campaigned for dress reform, women's suffrage, women's health issues and much more. "A Medal for Dr. Mary" covers eighty -seven years of this extraordinary woman's life. Four Hundred and ninety-one pages propel the reader through the Civil War tragedies as well as the political and historical background of the years between 1832 and 1917. .