Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy [Hardcover]

Elizabeth R. Varon (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2, 2003

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 a gripping, richly researched 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.
Varon describes a woman who was very much a product of her time and place, yet continually took controversial stands--from her early efforts to free her family's slaves, to her daring wartime activities and beyond. Varon's powerful biography brings Van Lew to life, showing how she used the stereotypes of the day to confound Confederate authorities (who suspected her, but could not believe a proper Southern lady could be a spy), even as she brought together Union sympathizers at all levels of society, from slaves to slaveholders. After the war, a grateful President Ulysses S. Grant named her postmaster of Richmond--a remarkable break with custom for this politically influential post. But her Unionism, Republican politics, and outspoken support of racial justice earned her a lifetime of scorn in the former Confederate capital.
Even today, Elizabeth Van Lew remains a controversial figure in her beloved Richmond, remembered as the "Crazy Bet" of Lost Cause propaganda. Elizabeth Varon's account rescues her from both derision and oblivion, depicting an intelligent, resourceful, highly principled woman who remained, as she saw it, true to her country to the end.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The title of this groundbreaking and altogether remarkable biography effectively summarizes it. Varon, professor of history at Wellesley, gives the first full account of a figure recorded until now in legends and anecdotes. The formidable Miss Van Lew (1818-1900) was born to a wealthy slave-owning Richmond family of Northern background. From her early 20s she led the family in efforts to achieve peaceful emancipation, starting with the family's own slaves. With the outbreak of war and the secession of Virginia, which she saw as a crime and a disaster, her Unionist sentiments and efforts became more systematic. Beginning with providing comforts for Union prisoners, she went on to help them escape and ended by running a very modern-style intelligence network, through which intelligence flowed to the Union Army from couriers black and white, free and slave, but all Unionist and all risking their lives. Frequently under suspicion, she escaped, Varon shows, not by feigning insanity (as the legend of "Crazy Bet" would have it) but because gender and regional prejudices told the authorities that a Southern lady could not do such a thing. While she was publicly rewarded for her work after the war by an appointment as Richmond's postmaster, gender and political prejudice eventually led to her dismissal after Reconstruction, and she died poverty-stricken and unsung-until this book. This is not only a classic "forgotten woman" study, it is free of jargon, anachronism, prejudice and condescension, and as accessible to the lay reader as a novel. A wide variety of students of the Civil War will find it invaluable, and readers who just savor biographies of remarkable human beings can enjoy it, too.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Detailed, astute and convincing."--Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

"A thrilling detective story filled with clandestine meetings, cloak-and-dagger intrigue, disguises, surveillance and undercover work. While such well-known Civil War women spies as Belle Boyd and Rose O'Neal Greenhow remain shrouded in partisan mythology, Varon has unearthed hard evidence that establishes Van Lew as a genuine heroine of the Civil War era."--Raleigh News & Observer

"Groundbreaking and altogether remarkable...the first full account of a figure recorded until now in legends and anecdotes.... A classic 'forgotten woman' study...as accessible to the lay reader as a novel. A wide variety of students of the Civil War will find it invaluable, and readers who savor biographies of remarkable human beings can enjoy it too." --Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"A rich account of a complex and important figure in wartime Richmond.... This highly readable book contributes to our understanding of important issues related to the Civil War, including the importance of Unionist activity in the South, the ways in which women responded to the demands of war and the role of espionage in the Union war effort."--Civil War Book Review

"A solid job of ferreting out facts and discarding fiction.... What is presented here is the fullest scholarly treatment we are likely to have, and if Varon finds her subject to be one who loved and served her country to the end, the fascinating record speaks for itself."--Roanoke Times

"Popular Civil War literature is filled with romantic and sensational stories of female spies, many of them made up out of whole cloth. But the story told in Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, is eminently true. A member of the social elite in Richmond, Elizabeth Van Lew nevertheless loved the Union and disliked slavery. She built a Unionist underground in the Confederate capital that helped escaping prisoners of war and provided General Grant with valuable intelligence. Based on thorough research and written with grace and style, this account of Van Lew's contribution to Northern victory is a valuable addition to Civil War scholarship." --James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom and Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam

"This is a wonderfully readable and engaging book. Varon brings Van Lew out of the realm of myth and into the much more interesting domain of history, offering us a woman who as spy, abolitionist and woman's rights advocate was at once larger than life and at the center of her time." --Drew Gilpin Faust, Director of the Radcliffe Institute, author of Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War

"Elizabeth Varon's Southern Lady, Yankee Spy is a well-researched, well-written tale that illuminates a fascinating southern dissenter and forges a sensible path toward bringing women into the military narrative of the Civil War." --William W. Freehling, author of The Road to Disunion and The South vs. The South

"Few women risked as much to assist the Union effort during the Civil War as Elizabeth Van Lew. A member of Richmond's elite, Van Lew orchestrated an effort in the Confederate capital that conveyed useful information to United States military forces, embraced emancipation, and supported Radical Republican policies during Reconstruction. Elizabeth Varon's biography draws on substantial research to offer a long-overdue, and compelling, portrait of a complex and important figure." --Gary W. Gallagher, University of Virginia, author of The Confederate War

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195142284
• ISBN-13: 978-0195142280
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,050,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Van Lew relative's review, December 27, 2003

By 

Bart Hall (De Soto, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (Hardcover)

.
I am the great-great grandson of Elizabeth's brother, discussed extensively in the book. Ms. Varon has admirably fleshed out with documented sources many of the accounts passed down through our family. She has (thankfully) quite thoroughly debunked the 'Crazy Bet' nonsense that always bothered those of us who knew something of the real story. In that respect it is a valuable and enjoyable work. Most satisfying was the evident skill with which the author develops the paradox of northerners, starting with Elizabeth's father who came to Richmond in 1807 from New Jersey at age 17, becoming so thoroughly southern that her brother could marry into some of the bluest blood Virginia ever produced.

The book, however, would have been even better had Ms. Varon taken the time to develop a chapter on Elizabeth's sister-in-law, Mary Carter West. They did /not/ get along, and the Secession Crisis blew the Van Lew marriage apart along some already weak seams.

Mary was directly descended from four of the most important families in Virginia -- the Carters, Harrisons, Randolphs, and Wests. Robert E Lee's mother was a Carter cousin. President Harrison was a great-uncle. Mary's brother Thomas enlisted with the 27th Virginia Infantry less than a month after Fort Sumter was shelled, and was one of a handful of original enlistees still alive to surrender at Appomatox. The battle of Malvern Hill (1862) was literally in the West family's front yard.

In fairness to Ms. Varon I should note that she did mention Mary's departure from the family (family lore says that Elizabeth drove her out of the house) and subsequent (1864) testimony intended to finger the Van Lews as traitors. The topic area simply could have been substantially better developed and would have greatly deepened the reader's understanding of what a cauldron the Van Lew household was at the beginning of the war. The historical importance of this is that it is a particularly forceful and poignant example of what was a relatively common situation in Virginia. Most aren't as richly documented.

One area in which I would actively fault the author is that she repeatedly superimposes a late 20th century political correctness framework on a very different era. Example: Elizabeth is described as being a victim of "ageism" late in life.

Then there is the paucity of maps to set geographical context for readers unfamiliar with the area and its historic sites. The map of Richmond has no scale, which is sort of lame, but I'm being picky here. She also stumbles around in trying to understand the Mary Bowser connection, whereby the Van Lew ring supposedly had an operative in President Davis's very household.

On the other hand, her explanation of the 19th century understanding of death and how it related to the famous Col Dahlgren re-burial was delightfully helpful in clarifying an event that otherwise doesn't make much sense, given the huge risks for the parties involved.

All in all, this is vastly better than the other Van Lew books out there, some of which are pure bunk. It is enjoyable and generally well written. Ms. Varon is to be thanked for giving us a valuable window into the American story as experienced by one family -- at a crucial time, in a vital place.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PROFILE IN COURAGE, February 11, 2004

By 

charles falk (Novato, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (Hardcover)

One keeps expecting the Civil War, that great motherload for historians, finally to have been mined out. Then a book like SOUTHERN LADY, YANKEE SPY comes along, proving that there are still riches to be discovered in that thar war. Elizabeth Van Lew's name will not ring a bell with most Civil War buffs, but Elizabeth Varon's biography ought to remedy that. This woman's courageous story deserves a place in our textbooks.

Van Lew, though a member of one of Richmond's most prominent families, was a staunch unionist who led a spy network that fed valuable intelligence to Union Generals Butler and Grant. It is possible that Van Lew even placed a spy among the servants of Jefferson Davis' household. After the war, Van Lew was appointed Postmaster of Richmond by then-President Grant. During her eight-year tenure, she integrated her staff and improved service.

Varon, who teaches history at Wellesley College, fits into the framework of Van Lew's life story a good overview of unionist sentiment in Virginia prior to the war and its ineffectual leadership during the succession crisis. She thoroughly rebuts the "Crazy Bet" myth, which was Van Lew's image for much of the 20th century -- even among historians. The book's greatest accomplishment,though, is showing Van Lew as a three-dimensional person, constantly changing and evolving in response to the world around her.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Elizabeth Van Lew, April 9, 2011

By 

Claire3 - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy (Paperback)

Premise was interesting but I never felt I got to know Elizabeth Van Lew. The author had done considerable research and seemed compelled to include it all. A good editor would have been beneficial. Also, the author could have made a more personal connection by referring to her as Elizabeth rather than Van Lew so often. Think she could write a really interesting book about the van Lew's slave educated in the north who returned to the South and maybe ended up in the Jefferson Davis household. I like history and biography. This was rather boring.