Elizabeth Van Lew: Virginia Socialite and Union Spymaster

The Van Lew mansion was a place of spy meetings, espionage, and secret solace for escaped slaves during the Civil War. 1906, VCU Libraries. Public Domain

Elizabeth Van Lew (1818–1900) was born in Richmond, Virginia’s capitol, though both of her parents had northern roots. Her father, John Van Lew, was from Long Island, New York, and her mother, Eliza Louise Baker, was from Philadelphia. The family was part of Richmond’s high society, living in a mansion within the prominent Church Hill neighborhood.

Van Lew began her education in Richmond, but finished at a Quaker school in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania was founded by the Quaker Englishman William Penn. The Quakers possessed pacifist and anti-slavery sentiments, and the latter indeed influenced Van Lew’s views—views she shared with her mother. Although the Van Lews owned more than 20 slaves, Van Lew and her mother often used the manumission process to free their slaves or enable them to live as if they were free. One of the Van Lews’ slaves, Mary Jane Richards, who was manumitted, was educated in either Philadelphia or Princeton, and then she left for Liberia in 1855 as a missionary to join the American Colonization Society.

In 1850, John died, leaving the estate to his widow and daughter. The two hoped that Virginia would eventually abolish slavery, but these hopes were dashed upon the state’s secession and the outbreak of the Civil War. The Civil War, however, afforded Van Lew an opportunity that she would have otherwise never received: the opportunity to become a spymaster.

Elizabeth Van Lew never married, instead devoting her life to the freedom of African Americans and the case of the Union soldiers during the Civil War. Public Domain

Orchestrating the Underground

Shortly before the war, Richards, no longer a slave, returned to the Van Lews from her missionary work. Her return greatly benefited Van Lew and the Union Army.

Virginia officially seceded from the Union after the May 23 state referendum. Before the year 1861 ended, Van Lew, a loyal Unionist, began orchestrating a spy ring known as the Richmond Underground to undermine the Confederate cause—a spy ring that grew to at least 12 people, both white and black, men and women.

After the Confederate victory at what was the first full-scale battle of the Civil War, the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, Union prisoners of war were brought to a prison depot in Richmond. Van Lew convinced the prison guards to allow her and her mother to visit the Union soldiers in order to provide them food and clothes.

After the influx of Union prisoners, the depot became untenable. By March 1862, prisoners were relocated to a three-building complex on the outskirts of Richmond called Libby Prison, only a few blocks from the Van Lew mansion. Although this placed Union soldiers in closer proximity to Van Lew, Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued martial law for Richmond on March 1, which prevented Union prisoners from receiving visitors. Davis’s edict also led to the arrest of dozens of Unionists.

"Libby Prison," an 1863 painting by David Gilmour Blythe, depicted the notorious Confederate prison. Public Domain

Undermining Libby

By June, the prison camp held only Union officers. Though Van Lew couldn’t visit prisoners in person, she bribed prison guards and officials to allow her to send them provisions or have them moved temporarily to local hospitals. Through these efforts, Van Lew sent and received messages to and from the Union officers, at times using a custard dish with a false bottom where messages could be stored. She created a cipher for creating messages and wrote messages with invisible ink.

Her ability to recruit spies was rather astonishing, as she was able to obtain the assistance of Erasmus Ross, a prison clerk for Libby Prison. Each agent received a code name, and while some Unionists were arrested on suspicion, none of the members of the Van Lew-led Richmond Underground ever were.

Richards was even hired by Jefferson Davis as a slave to work in the Confederate White House. Richards, who used the alias Mary Bowers, not only possessed an education, but also a photographic memory. She memorized many of the documents which she secretly examined. Richards relayed information back to Van Lew, who relayed it to Union officials.

“Most generally our reliable news is gathered from negroes, and they certainly show wisdom, discretion and prudence, which is wonderful,” Van Lew noted, writing in the conventions of her time.

An Escape and a Burial

The Van Lew mansion was often used as a way station for people trying to escape to the North. Van Lew may have also assisted in the most daring escape at Libby Prison, in which 109 Union officers dug a 60-foot tunnel. They made their escape on Feb. 9, 1864. Although 48 were recaptured and two drowned in the James River, 59 made their way back to the Union lines.

Less than a month later, the 3rd Cavalry Division, led by Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick and Col. Ulric Dahlgren, attempted to free prisoners of war in Richmond, but were routed by the Confederates. Dahlgren was killed in action on March 3, and on his body was found papers ordering his men to burn the city and assassinate Davis and his cabinet. By whose authority were these papers written is still debated. Nonetheless, Confederates severely mistreated Dahlgren’s body and buried him in an undisclosed location.

Van Lew sought the burial location and her network of operatives were able to discover, recover, and rebury the body in a safe location so that the body could be returned to the Dahlgren family at the end of the war. It was a risky operation that could have exposed the entire spy ring.

Young Union Col. Ulrich Dahlgren was only 21 years old when he was killed in the Battle of Walkerton. The infamous papers he carried led to a scandal involving his body's desecration and burial. Public Domain

A Close Call

When escaped Union officers informed Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler that they were assisted by Van Lew, Butler contacted her concerning his intelligence needs. Van Lew, with numerous operatives within the Confederate War and Navy departments, began providing Butler with vital intelligence on Confederate troop strength, movements, and the conditions in Richmond pertaining to the city’s defenses and its economic outlook.

As Gen. Ulysses S. Grant began to move south toward Richmond, Van Lew continued to provide valuable information. At times, members of the Bureau of Military Intelligence met clandestinely at her house to exchange information.

In September of 1864, a formal investigation was launched into Van Lew’s activities. The investigation concluded that “it does not appear that she has ever done anything to infirm the cause.“ The fact that Van Lew was merely viewed as “very unfriendly in her sentiments towards the Govt.” was proof of the excellence of her tradecraft.

At War’s End

When the war ended and Richmond was taken by the Union Army, Van Lew worked to assist Richmond citizens who were injured or needed help. The wealthy socialite, despite the findings of the 1864 investigation, was despised by most Virginians and was branded a “spy” and “traitor.” Her wealth and her name suffered significantly, as most of her money was spent helping people escape, providing essentials for prisoners, and affording the needs of a successful spy ring.

Grant provided Van Lew a small stipend for her efforts. When he became president, however, he made her Postmaster of Richmond, a prominent and rather lucrative government position. She held the post for both of his terms. She sponsored a library in Richmond that was dedicated to African Americans, and became an advocate for civil rights and women’s suffrage throughout the rest of her life.

On Sept. 25, 1900, Van Lew died. Unfortunately, her funds had run out and she had little money even for her own burial. Some of her friends in Boston, known as the Massachusetts Admirers of Union Sympathizers, paid for her funeral. Among those friends was Paul Joseph Revere, a descendant of the revolutionary hero, whom Van Lew had helped while he was a prisoner of war.

The tombstone of Elizabeth Van Lew was put up out of the generosity of those who sympathized with the anti-slavery cause. Melllea/CC BY-SA 2.0

Her tombstone in Richmond reads, “She risked everything that was dear to her—friends, fortune, comfort, health, even life itself—all for one absorbing desire of her heart—that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved.”

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