Elizabeth Van Lew (1818-1900)

• Union spymaster operating in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.
• Worked with fellow spy, Mary Elizabeth Bowser.
• Used her eccentric personality as a cover; led some to label her “Crazy Bet."
• Supplied clothes, medicine, and food to captured Union troops held in Libby Prison; helped many of these prisoners escape.
• Was instrumental in positioning Mary Elizabeth Bowser as a spy at President Jefferson Davis’s home.
• For more photos of Van Lew as well as links to some of her letters and newspaper articles about her, visit Civil War Richmond.

• Born a slave in the Van Lew household; emancipated with other household slaves by Elizabeth Van Lew in 1851.
• Remained as a freed Van Lew family servant.
• With Elizabeth Van Lew, spied for the Union Army.
• Became a valued “agent in place” assigned to the household of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
• Davis incorrectly assumed Bowser was illiterate; left important dispatches on his desk, which she read and memorized.
• This information was provided to Van Lew, who passed it along to grateful Union officers.
• Bowser's clandestine work for the Union was never compromised.