The Elizabeth Van Lew Story

My name is Elizabeth Van Lew and this is my story, of how I successfully spied on the Confederates, became better known as “Crazy Bet” and then later became an honored hero by the Union Troops.

During the time of the Civil War woman were not permitted to participate in the Civil War. Our role as a woman was to take care of the home while our husbands were out fighting in the battle, but I was not satisfied with this, so I decided to take matters in my own hands, with the help of a former slave to my family named Mary Elizabeth Bowser.

The first step to my plan was sending my former slave and accomplice Mary Elizabeth Bowser to a Quaker school to learn to read and write. After her schooling was complete, I arranged for her to be a servant in the home of Jefferson Davis, where she obtained useful information about the Confederacy.

There were many methods on how information was obtained; Mary and I met after dark for her to share with me what she learned whiling working in Mr. Davis home, we would hide messages from Yankee prisoners in baskets of food and medicine.

The townspeople saw me as an eccentric, so to go along with what they though of me, I began to walked the streets talking to myself with my head bent to one side, and wore shabby clothing.

In 1865 I was thanked personally by General Grant himself for my services to the Union, and I was presented with the honor of raising the Union flag above my home.

After the Civil War ended president Grant appointed me postmistress of Richmond, but I then lost the job when Hayes took office, to then be accepted a clerical position at the Post Office Department, to then resign after Cleveland was president.

I then lived the rest of my life in my family mansion alone, and before I died I buried my diary outside of my mansion, of which held all the memoirs of my roll in the Civil War.