Civil War Spy: Elizabeth Van Lew

by Sue Vander Hook

Civil War Spy is a Capstone Press publication.

48 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is about Elizabeth Van Lew, who lived in the South but supported the North during the Civil War. She ended up serving as a spy for the North and even developed her own system of contacts and different ways to get messages out to the North.

One black woman was a servant at Jefferson Davis' place. Blacks were considered rather stupid and it was illegal to teach them to read and write, but this black woman had been taught, so she was able to listen to conversation between Davis and other Southern men of importance, and even to read documents that Davis had. She would get that information to Van Lew who then got that information out to her spy network.

Van Lew was not liked by the other women, though, and was pretty much an outcaste from the social world of the city. Her work, though, proved to be very important to the North.

The book also has a glossary, additional interesting facts, a timeline, information about other important people of the time, a list of other books to read and even more information. Very well done.