Only Call Us Faithful: A Novel of the Union Underground

by Marie Jakober

Elizabeth Van Lew, Patriot

Elizabeth Van Lew was born in Richmond, Virginia, a citizen of the United States of America. When Virginia and other southern states seceded, she didn't feel that changed her citizenship. Once the Civil War started, she led a dangerous double life to aid her country.

Her neighbors thought her merely an eccentric spinster; in reality she was busy day and night, ferreting out Confederate military secrets and passing them covertly through enemy lines to other members of the Union intelligence underground, all right under the suspicious noses of the Confederate military command in her native Richmond. The Confederate Army constantly harassed they raided her house in the middle of the night; they followed as she went about her business through the streets of Richmond; they even searched her grocery bags for possible hidden messages. Throughout the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew was but a hair's breadth away from exposure, and a hanging death. This is her heroic true story.

Winner of the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Civil War, American Civil War, Historical

384 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2002

About the author

From Wikipedia:

Marie Jakober is an award-winning Canadian novelist.

Based in Calgary, Alberta, Jakober writes historical fiction and fantasy. Sandinista: A Novel of Nicaragua (1985) won the Writer's Guild of Alberta Novel Award in 1985. She received the 2002 Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction for her novel Only Call Us Faithful (2002).[1]

Her second Civil War novel, Sons of Liberty, won the Georges Bugnet Award for Novel at the Alberta Book Awards in 2006.

Reviews

[Tom]

I really enjoyed this fictional imagining of Elizabeth van Lew's life as a Union spy in the heart of the Confederacy--Richmond, Virginia. The historical detail was wonderful and extended not just to aspects of the war, but also to life in the South and the treatment of women. I was especially impressed with the strong anti-slavery message. The characters were well developed and the story was exciting, the more so for being about true events. I would highly recommend it.

[Emily Warfield]

I couldn't get into the book. I would get interested in one part of the storyline then it would switch to another part. The jumping around in the timeline was just difficult to follow. The historical facts part seemed good just dry.

[Mike Stone,]

A "Must" For Civil War Enthusiasts

This is the story of a Southern Lady, from a fine old Virginia family, in fact a superb example of the Southern womanhood that Confederates claimed to be fighting for.

Only this one didn't want them to fight for her. She was loyal to the Union (and also antislavery) and when her state seceded her reaction was to set up in business as a spy for the North.

Narrated, in an original twist, by the heroine's ghost, this novel gives a fascinating picture of the war behind the lines. Spies (including a Black one right inside Jefferson Davis' White House) slave stealers, prisoners of war and loyal Virginians helping the Union Army (or trying to) give a whole angle on the war that Gone With The Wind never mentioned.

I do have one or two gripes. While the heroine (and the author, I suspect) have some reason to be aggrieved at the way the loyal southerners have been forgotten by history, I feel she makes a bigger mystery of this than it really is. Wars, even more than other historical events, tend to get remembered "in primary colours" and as the War passed into memory as a war of North against South, the dissidents on both sides got airbrushed out, all the more so as they still had to live with the neighbours, hence found it wiser not to brag about their war records. So by 1870 you got Southern Unionists saying they had served with Lee, whilst every Yankee claimed to have been a true blue Union Man, even if in reality he had voted for Vallandigham and spent every waking moment organising resistance to the Draft. So it goes.

Also, Miss Van Lew rather passes over the effect of Radical Reconstruction in smothering the development of a "loyal" southern tradition. Unlike her, many former Unionist disliked carpetbaggers and "uppity" blacks as much as any Reb, and (like Andrew Johnson, about the most prominent loyalist, yet whom the novel doesn't even mention) found in opposition to Reconstruction a quick and easy path to reconciliation with their neighbours.

Still, enough quibbling. With all its faults, it's a great novel, and if the Civil War turns you on, it belongs up there on your bookshelf. It reminds me a lot of Kenneth Roberts' "Oliver Wiswell", the story of another loyalist faced by an earlier rebellion - and from me that is a high compliment. Read and enjoy

[Beverly Osborne]

Very creatively written historical novel re Elizabeth Van Lew, Union spy in Richmond during the Civil War.

[Charise]

Sometimes odd but brilliant.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a Union supporter who lived in Richmond during the civil war. She was shunned, threatened, mocked, constantly in danger of being arrested and through it all she kept working as a spy and trying to better the lives of the Union soldiers in Libby prison.
Elizabeth was a lonely, proud, tortured genius and a very complex woman. Just as she was overlooked during the civil war for being a single woman in her forties so she is also overlooked now. I'm very glad that I was able to learn more about this incredible woman.
I did find the ghost sections quite jarring at first (and those strange Scarlet O'Hara cameos!) but I appreciate now how they gave Elizabeth a voice in the future as well.

[Wendy]

Elizabeth is a strong woman, with a strong moral code, and is determined to do everything she could for the Union, even while living in the middle of the Confederacy. She endured much ridicule, suspicions, etc from everyone around her, but managed to keep her head held high.

[Minna]

I was inspired to read this book after reading a Desert Island Keeper review of the title here.

Only Call Us Faithful lived up to its promise, providing an intriguing look at a little-known slice of history. Much of the Civil War History I learned in school focused primarily on battles and politics on the large-scale, with much less attention paid to daily life and small-scale history, especially on the Southern end. (I attended school in Michigan, and while this may not be true of schools everywhere, from what I remember (and U.S. History, for me, was probably 10th or 11th grade, aka FOREVER ago) the focus was placed more on the Northern side of the conflict and certainly the Northern side of the conflict was perceived by all of us kids to be the "correct" one.) Needless to say, I had never heard of Liza Van Lew or her group of Unionist "spies" although it does stand to reason that such a group - indeed, many such groups - existed.

I found Liza to be a compelling and sympathetic heroine, and I really felt for her as a person when she relayed how isolated she felt during but especially after the war. The murder of her poor cat made me cry. Really, Liza and her compatriots were done a wrong by both her neighbors and by the government she acted so loyally on behalf of, and it made me sad to read it.

Ms. Jakober's writing is exquisite, and I found myself wishing I could underline many passages as I read. Neither the author nor Ms. Van Lew has any sentimentality whatsoever for the confederate cause, and its myriad hypocrisies and ridiculousnesses are tartly pointed out. The timing of reading this book, considering its outlook, was really coincidental with the Charleston church shooting and the move, HUNDREDS of years after the war, by lawmakers to finally stop flying the confederate flag. I wonder what Ms. Van Lew (either the real one, OR the character) would have to say on the subject.

The only negative, in my opinion, was that the book could be a bit slow at times despite its subject matter. Slow, and occasionally a tad dry. But overall I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it highly to anyone with an interest in U.S. History, particularly in the Civil War.

[Kressel Housman]

I first learned of Elizabeth Van Lew, the woman on whose life this historical novel is based, from the International Spy Museum in Washington DC. No Mata Hari, she was a genteel Southern lady who was nonetheless an abolitionist and spy for the Union army. One of the stars of her network was her own freed slave, Mary Elizabeth Bowser, who landed the strategic position of cook in the home of Jefferson Davis.

Originally, I was hoping to read a biography of Elizabeth Van Lew, not a historical novel, but this one was so highly rated and well reviewed here on Goodreads, I thought it was worth a try. And now I'm upping its average rating just a little higher by adding my own rating of 5.

Like with any work historical fiction, I often found myself wondering, "Did that really happen or did the author make that up?" So I especially appreciated the author's note at the end of the book explaining all of that. I am still looking forward to getting hold of Elizabeth Van Lew's actual diary, which I have ordered on special loan from the library. No doubt, the author took from this, too.

One element of the novel that is obviously pure fiction is that the character of Elizabeth Van Lew is supposed to be a ghost telling you the story of her life. The narrative alternates between the Civil War era and the timeless ghostly realm. This fantasy element might annoy some history purists, but the author makes an excellent point with it: the U.S. is still haunted by ghosts of the Civil War.

I intend to follow up on this novel with a non-fictional account, but I think it was a great introduction. After all, the novel is such a wonderfully engaging form, even if we can't know whether it represented Elizabeth Van Lew's intimate thoughts as they really were. As a northerner, I appreciated the lesson that the south was not monolithic in support of secession. And best of all were the author's insights into war, prejudice, and privilege. Highly recommended.

[Mallory]

One of the truest, most powerful Civil War books (fiction or non-fiction) that you will ever read. “Only Call Us Faithful” paints an honest, unflinching portrait of life in Richmond during this painful time. This is a novel of Elizabeth Van Lew, Southerner by birth, Unionist by choice, and the help she and many, many others provided to the North through the Union Underground network. Considered traitors to the South and spies, their work was extremely dangerous and very crucial to the war effort, though it is not well-known today.

I absolutely loved this book. Liza Van Lew is a character one quickly becomes attached to. I experienced her whole raft of emotions as I read. Seeing the war through her eyes and the eyes of the men held in Libby Prison, I realized for the first time how truly awful it must have been to choose sides in your own country. Atrocities were committed on both sides. Southerners did not always behave like gentlemen and the North was not always right. Elizabeth Van Lew was a real person from history, as are many others in this book. Jakober truly made them come alive.

Favorite quotes: “It’s one of the hardest things imaginable, to find yourself an enemy in your own country.” – Elizabeth Van Lew
“It’s hard, I suppose, for you who know the history, to realize how scared we were, how our spirits went up and down like bits of driftwood at the bottom of a waterfall, how close defeat and ruin sometimes seemed, and sometimes was. We could have lost the war in half a dozen different places, half a dozen different times.” – Elizabeth Van Lew

[Suzanne]

This book was recommended by one of my Goodreads friends, and it's a perfect example of why I appreciate the site so much. Despite it's limited number of reviews, Only Call Us Faithful is definitely a five star read.

Historical fiction, set during the U.S. Civil War, Marie Jakober pens the tale of Union sympathizer Elizabeth Van Lew, a Richmond resident who helped Union prisoners and spied for the North.

Not only is this novel extremely well-written and researched, but I greatly appreciated the opportunity to hear the greater story of this amazing woman of whom I had recently read about in Liar, Temptress, Soldier Spy by Karen Abbott.

Fantastic novel!

[Lynda]

A meditation on one woman's Civil War, both in life and as a ghost who looks back at the legends from the perspective of a participant. The heroine, Elizabeth Lew, was a southern woman of uncompromising moral character who acted as a secret agent for the Union cause, motivated by her hatred of slavery. Like all Marie Jakkober's books, this one can be read more than once with fresh pleasures. Her knowledge of Civil War history is convincingly reflected through the details of the lives of her very human yet extraordinary characters.

[Laura]

This is a book of the Union underground in Richmond, told by the ghost of the prime leader, a spinster living with her brother and her widowed mother in a decaying mansion. I found the story compelling, so compelling that it overcame my frustration with the author's choice to have a ghost as a narrator and to jump back and forth in time, rather than telling the story chronologically. Even months after reading it, I find it resurfacing it in my mind and I think that I may look for a copy to add to my library and re-read. This is not a part of the Civil War that often gets told.

[Rachel]

I look forward to rereading this some time. I loved learning about the work of the Southern spies in the American Civil War. The novel is told from the perspective of a middle-aged spinster, so the story tells of her everyday life and the big military battles are in the background. The main character is a ghost remembering her life and it took me 20 pages to get into that framework, but it works really well because then she can comment on the differences between her day and ours. I couldn't put this down.

[Kay Kramer]

It took me a little while to get into this book since it's told from the point of view of ghosts and tends to bounce around quite a bit. The vignettes of the Civil War activity are very interesting, but sometimes the continuity is a little difficult to follow. Overall, a good book, but not one I'll read more than once.

[Linda Munroe]

I found this book to be very absorbing. Popular prejudice seems to turn 'Rebels' into Hero's and finding historical fiction that represents the anti- slavery struggle is hard. Great storytelling and I had no trouble suspending my disbelief.

[Kathleen McRae]

I very much enjoyed reading this book. It was a gem of a read! It had some historical data in it that I found very interesting and I loved How the author narrated it

[Beth]

A very different kind of Civil War historical fiction, told from the viewpoint of Union sympathizers embedded in Richmond society.

[Alexa]

Some interesting characters but ultimately it felt like a history lessons. Not much happens other than the events that provide the historic backdrop.

[Karen Fiandaca]

Interesting different viewpoint on the civil war from a southern northern sympathizer