The Belle Was A Spy

Elizabeth Van Lew, a southern belle, was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. Wealthy, well-connected, attractive, charming, she was utterly opposed to slavery. When Virginia seceded, she supported the Union. Burying outward signs of that support, she provided secret support: helping Union POWs escape to the North, and eventually spying.

Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War, by Gerri Willis, tells her story, and the story of the escape and espionage ring she ran from Richmond.

The book is a biography of Van Lew, with a focus on her service to the Union during the Civil War. Willis tells of Van Lew’s family and upbringing, putting her support for abolition in context. It shows how her family acquired its wealth and explains her status in the antebellum South.

The heart of the book explores Van Lew’s support for the Union during the Civil War. It started small, providing succor to Northern soldiers held prisoners of war in Richmond. There was no Geneva Convention yet, and the South treated POWs shabbily.

Eventually it grew into active measures. Willis shows how Van Lew built a line to move escaping Union POWs safely to the North. Later, Van Lew began gathering military and political intelligence about the Confederacy, sending it to Washington. She even infiltrated a spy into Jefferson Davis’s household, lending Varina Davis a Van Lew family house slave as a domestic. The slave, Mary Bowser, was literate and eager to help the Northern cause.

Willis shows that much of Van Lew’s success was due to Confederate society’s propensity to underestimate the abilities of both women and slaves. Van Lew and her associates pulled off deeds that would have aroused suspicion if done by white men.

Willis fills the book with colorful characters who played roles in the Civil War. Besides Bowser, these include assassin John Wilkes Booth, Southern spy Rose Greenhow, and prison escaper Thomas Rose.

The book lacks a happy ending. In her later years Van Lew was abandoned by Washington, DC. She was shunned by Richmond neighbors for supporting the North. She became impoverished, known late in life as “Crazy Bet.”

Regardless, Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster tells a powerful story. It shows what one determined person can accomplish through force of will and determination. It reminds readers how far the US has progressed in racial equality and women’s rights in 160 years.

“Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War,” by Gerri Willis, Harper, June 3, 2025, 288 pages, $28.99 (Hardcover), $14.99 (E-book), $24.29 (Audiobook), $45.95 (Audio CD)

This review was written by Mark Lardas, who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com.