Elizabeth Van Lew

Born:  October 12, 1818, Richmond, Virginia

Died:  September 25, 1900, Richmond, Virginia

Resting Place:  Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia

Brief History:  John Van Lew's will stipulated that none of the family's enslaved human property could be freed. Her hope was that Southerners would free their slaves and that emancipation by manumission would gradually end the practice that she viewed as abhorrent and destructive to the South. Upon the outbreak of the war, Van Lew began working on behalf of the Union with her mother, caring for wounded soldiers. 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 staff. Van Lew reportedly helped Union soldiers by giving them money to bribe Confederates. Recently captured prisoners gave Van Lew information on Confederate troop levels and movements, which she passed on to Union commanders. She is rumored to have helped hide escaped Union prisoners and Confederate deserters in her own mansion, although no definite proof of such claims has been found.

Van Lew also operated a spy ring during the war, which included clerks in the War and Navy Departments of the Confederacy, as well as free and enslaved African Americans, including Mary Richards Bowser. Mary Jane Richards, aka Mary Elizabeth Bowser, was reputedly a formerly enslaved maid in the Van Lew household, and was sent by the family to be educated in a Quaker school in Pennsylvania. She might have used the alias Mary Elizabeth Bowser to conceal her identity. Van Lew's spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper. She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmond in hollow eggs. Union commanders highly valued Van Lew's work; intelligence commander George H. Sharpe, Army of the Potomac, recommended that the government reimburse Van Lew $15,000 because of the great expense she incurred in her efforts, including employment of spies. Because of the merit of her work, General Grant appointed Van Lew Postmaster General of Richmond for the next eight years.