The remaining rescissions were individual cases judged against the board’s criteria. Among them was Mary Edwards Walker.
The board’s stated rationale was that only military personnel who had “convincingly displayed valor in combat against the enemy” were eligible, and that Walker, as a civilian contract surgeon, did not qualify. The laws of 1862, 1863, and 1904 had progressively restricted the medal to commissioned officers and enlisted personnel. As a contract surgeon — not a commissioned officer, not an enlisted soldier — Walker fell outside those categories.
The board’s application of its own standards was not entirely consistent. Leonard Wood, who had served as a contract surgeon during the Apache campaigns in the 1880s before receiving a commission and eventually rising to Army Chief of Staff, retained his medal. Wood happened to have been recommended for his medal by Nelson Miles, who was the president of the reviewing board. Critics noted the apparent inconsistency: Wood was also a contract surgeon during the period for which he received the medal, yet his award was not rescinded. The board did not fully explain the distinction.
The Judge Advocate General, assessing the legal situation after the board’s findings, concluded that the Army did not have the legal authority to compel medal recipients to return their decorations, even those whose names had been struck from the rolls. Congress had not given the Army enforcement power. The rescission was an administrative act removing names from an official list; it was not, legally, a confiscation of the physical medals themselves.