Mary Edwards Walker was born on November 26, 1832, in Oswego, New York, about 40 miles from Mystic’s home in Camden. The youngest of seven children, Walker was raised in a progressive household where her parents encouraged her to be a free thinker. Walker’s parents wanted Mary and her sisters to get the same education as their son, so they founded the first free schoolhouse in Oswego, which Mary attended. Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College at the age of 21 after attending three 13-week semesters of training. She then married a fellow physician and set up a medical practice in Rome, New York, but both the business and the marriage failed. Walker tried to join the Union Army when the Civil War began but was denied a commission, so she volunteered as a surgeon. At the time, the Army didn’t allow female surgeons so she was admitted as a nurse, but eventually became acting assistant surgeon, becoming the first female surgeon in the U.S. Army. For two years, Walker served at the front lines including the First Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chattanooga, after the Battle of Chickamauga. In 1863, she was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland and eventually the 52nd Ohio Infantry.