Thomas F. (hardtack) -
This incomplete diary of Elizabeth Van Lew was painful to read. One of the great Union heroines of the Civil War, she sacrificed her fortune and her standing in Southern society for the Union, but after Grant's presidency ended, her country abandoned her.
To really understand how valuable her services as a spy were to the United States, you really have to read more than her diary. Other books relate how she freed her slaves before the war, and educated them. After the war began she brought one of her former female slaves back, a woman with a photographic memory, and, using her contacts, had the woman hired as a maid in the Confederate White House. The information this woman obtained for the Union from Jefferson Davis' desk was priceless.
Another of her agents was the chief detective for the general who headed the Confederate Provost Guard. Other agents occupied key clerk positions in the Confederate government and provided information on Confederate Army strengths and movements, and economic information. One of her agents also controlled Confederate railroads in Virginia. It wasn't by chance that food rotted in a warehouse 100 miles from starving Confederate troops. Once Richmond and Petersburg were surrounded, her 'slaves' daily brought the latest information, as well as fresh flowers and the morning Richmond newspapers, to General Grant's breakfast table. She helped many Union soldiers who escaped from Confederate POW prisons to safety. She even had an agent working in the infamous Libby prison, who helped Union officers to escape.
In addition, after the failed Dahlgren raid on Richmond, when Dahlgren's body was secretly buried in an unmarked grave by the Confederates, she had it dug up and removed the body to a safe, hidden grave. After the war, she returned the body to Dahlgren's family.
The fact that Miss Van Lew is mostly forgotten is one of the great tragedies of American history.
Also recommended:
Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy
Miss Lizzie's War: The Double Life Of Southern Belle Spy Elizabeth Van Lew
Elizabeth Van Lew: Civil War Spy
To really understand how valuable her services as a spy were to the United States, you really have to read more than her diary. Other books relate how she freed her slaves before the war, and educated them. After the war began she brought one of her former female slaves back, a woman with a photographic memory, and, using her contacts, had the woman hired as a maid in the Confederate White House. The information this woman obtained for the Union from Jefferson Davis' desk was priceless.
Another of her agents was the chief detective for the general who headed the Confederate Provost Guard. Other agents occupied key clerk positions in the Confederate government and provided information on Confederate Army strengths and movements, and economic information. One of her agents also controlled Confederate railroads in Virginia. It wasn't by chance that food rotted in a warehouse 100 miles from starving Confederate troops. Once Richmond and Petersburg were surrounded, her 'slaves' daily brought the latest information, as well as fresh flowers and the morning Richmond newspapers, to General Grant's breakfast table. She helped many Union soldiers who escaped from Confederate POW prisons to safety. She even had an agent working in the infamous Libby prison, who helped Union officers to escape.
In addition, after the failed Dahlgren raid on Richmond, when Dahlgren's body was secretly buried in an unmarked grave by the Confederates, she had it dug up and removed the body to a safe, hidden grave. After the war, she returned the body to Dahlgren's family.
The fact that Miss Van Lew is mostly forgotten is one of the great tragedies of American history.
Also recommended:
Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy
Miss Lizzie's War: The Double Life Of Southern Belle Spy Elizabeth Van Lew
Elizabeth Van Lew: Civil War Spy
