Elizabeth Van Lew

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Elizabeth Van Lew (1818–1900), also known as "Crazy Bet," was an American spy. Called "one of the great female spies of all time",^[1] Van Lew spied for the Union from her home in Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War.

[edit] Biography

Born in 1818 in Richmond, Van Lew's father ran a hardware business and owned several slaves. Van Lew was educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was first exposed to abolitionism. After the death of her father, Van Lew and her mother freed the family's nine slaves, including Mary Bowser, and bought and freed some of their relatives.^[2]

Upon the outbreak of the war, Van Lew began working on behalf of the Union. When Libby Prison was opened in Richmond, Van Lew was allowed to bring food, clothing, writing paper, and other things to the Union soldiers imprisoned there. She aided prisoners in escape attempts, passing them information about safe houses and getting a Union sympathizer appointed to the prison.^[2] Prisoners gave Van Lew information on Confederate troop levels and movements, which she was able to pass on to Union commanders.^[3]

Van Lew also operated a spy ring of 12 people during the war, including clerks in the war and navy departments of the Confederacy and a Richmond mayoral candidate. Van Lew was able to have Bowser hired by Varina Davis, which allowed Bowser to spy in the White House of the Confederacy. To aid in her spying, Van Lew adopted the appearance of a crazy person, letting her hair grow wild and talking to herself in public.^[2] Van Lew's spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Ulysses S. Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper.^[2][3] She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmand in hollow eggs.^[2][3]

Van Lew's work was highly valued by the United States. George H. Sharpe, intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac, credited her with "the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864-65." On Grant's first visit to Richmond after the war, he took tea with Van Lew, and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond.^[2] Grant said of her "You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war."^[3]

When Richmond fell to the United States, Van Lew was the first person to raise the US flag in the city.^[3] After Reconstruction, Van Lew became increasingly ostracized in Richmond. She persuaded the United States Department of War to give her all of her records, so she could hide the true extent of her espionage from her neighbors. Having spent her family's fortune on intelligence activities during the war, she tried in vain to be reimbursed by the federal government.^[2]

Van Lew died in 1900, and was buried in Richmond. Her grave was unmarked until the relatives of a Union soldier she had aided donated a tombstone. She is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

[edit] References

1. ^ Markle, Donald E. Spies and Spyasters of the Civil War. New York: Hippocrene, 1994
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Loewen, James W. "'One of the Great Female Spies of All Times'". Lies Across America. New York: Touchstone, 1999.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Elizabeth Van Lew". Accessed 13 February 2007.