Bedford Public Library

Southern lady, Yankee spy, the true story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union agent in the heart of the Confederacy, Elizabeth R. Varon

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-303) and index

individual biography

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Southern lady, Yankee spy

bibliography

57430826

Elizabeth R. Varon

"Northern sympathizer in the Confederate capital, daring spymaster, postwar politician: Elizabeth Van Lew was one of the most remarkable figures in American history, a woman who defied the conventions of the nineteenth-century South. In Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, historian Elizabeth Varon provides an account of the woman who led what one historian called "the most productive espionage operation of the Civil War." Under the nose of the Confederate government, Van Lew ran a spy ring that gathered intelligence, hampered the Southern war effort, and helped scores of Union soldiers to escape from Richmond prisons

the true story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union agent in the heart of the Confederacy

Varon's biography brings Van Lew to life, rescuing her from obscurity and showing how she used the stereotypes of the day to confound Confederate authorities even as she brought together Union sympathizers at all levels of society."--Jacket

"An awful responsibility": the making of a dissenter, 1818-1860 -- "My country! Oh my country!": Virginia leaves the Union -- "Our flag was gone": The war's first year -- "The bright rush of life": The making of the Richmond underground -- Bet and the "beast": Butler finds his spy -- "This precious dust": The clandestine reburial of Colonel Ulric Dahlgren -- "The smoke of battle": Grant moves on Richmond -- "A flaming altar": The fall of Richmond and its aftermath -- "A fiery ordeal": The trials of a female politician -- The myth of "Crazy Bet" -- Epilogue: Van Lew's ghost

adult