Elizabeth Van Lew Elizabeth Van Lew ( October 25 , 1818 – September 25 , 1900 ) was a well - born Richmond , Virginia resident who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War . Early life . Elizabeth Van Lew was born on October 25 , 1818 , in Richmond , Virginia to John Van Lew and Eliza Baker , whose father was Hilary Baker , mayor of Philadelphia from 1796 to 1798 . Elizabeth ' s father came to Richmond in 1806 at the age of 16 and , within twenty years , had built up a prosperous hardware business and owned several slaves . Elizabeth was educated at a Quaker school in Philadelphia , where her family ' s abolitionist sentiments were reinforced . Upon the death of her father in 1843 , Elizabeth ' s brother John Newton Van Lew took over the business and the family freed their nine slaves , even though John had been somewhat opposed to the idea . Those slaves included the young future Union spy Mary Bowser . In the depths of the 1837 - 44 depression , Elizabeth used her entire cash inheritance of $ 10 , 000 ( nearly $ 200 , 000 in current money ) to purchase and free some of their former slaves ' relatives . For years thereafter , Elizabeth ' s brother was a regular visitor to Richmond ' s slave market , where , when a family was about to be split up , he would purchase them all , bring them home , and issue their papers of manumission . The American Civil War . Upon the outbreak of the war , Van Lew began working on behalf of the Union . When Libby Prison was opened in Richmond , Van Lew was allowed to bring food , clothing , writing paper , and other things to the Union soldiers imprisoned there . She aided prisoners in escape attempts , passing them information about safe houses and getting a Union sympathizer appointed to the prison staff . Prisoners gave Van Lew information on Confederate troop levels and movements , which she was able to pass on to Union commanders . Van Lew also operated a spy ring during the war , including clerks in the War and Navy Departments of the Confederacy and a Richmond mayoral candidate . It has been widely suggested that Van Lew convinced Varina Davis to hire Bowser as a household servant , enabling Bowser to spy in the White House of the Confederacy . Varina Davis adamantly denied ever hiring Bowser , although it would be unlikely she would have known of Bowser ' s real identity or admitted hiring her after the fact . Recent research by Lois M . Leveen suggests that although Bowser used several pseudonyms during and after the war , making her contributions especially difficult to document , newly uncovered sources confirm her involvement in the Union espionage circle run by Van Lew . Van Lew ' s spy network was so efficient that on several occasions she sent Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant fresh flowers from her garden and a copy of the Richmond newspaper . She developed a cipher system and often smuggled messages out of Richmond in hollow eggs . Van Lew ' s work was highly valued by the United States . George H . Sharpe , intelligence officer for the Army of the Potomac , credited her with " the greater portion of our intelligence in 1864 - 65 . " On Grant ' s first visit to Richmond after the war , he had tea with Van Lew , and later appointed her postmaster of Richmond . Grant said of her , " You have sent me the most valuable information received from Richmond during the war . " The end of the war and her later life . When Richmond fell to U . S . forces in April 1865 , Van Lew was the first person to raise the United States flag in the city . President Grant made her postmaster of Richmond and she served in that office from 1869 to 1877 . After the Reconstruction , Van Lew became increasingly ostracized in Richmond . She persuaded the United States Department of War to give her all of her records , so she could hide the true extent of her espionage from her neighbors . Having spent her family ' s fortune on intelligence activities during the war , she tried in vain to be reimbursed by the federal government . When the government failed to provide sufficient aid , she turned to a group of wealthy and influential Bostonians for support . They gladly collected money for the woman who helped so many Union soldiers during the war . Van Lew died on September 25 , 1900 , and was buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond . Her grave was unmarked until the relatives of Union Colonel Paul J . Revere , whom she had aided during the war donated a tombstone . She is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame . Even into the twentieth century , however , Van Lew was regarded by many Southerners as a traitor . In her will , Van Lew bequeathed her personal manuscripts , including her account of the war , to John P . Reynolds , nephew of Col . Revere . In 1911 Reynolds was able to convince the scholar William G . Beymer to publish the first biography of Van Lew in " Harper ' s Monthly " . The biography indicated that Van Lew had been so successful in her spying activities because she had feigned lunacy , and this idea won Van Lew the nickname " Crazy Bet " . However , it is unlikely that Van Lew actually did pretend to be crazy . Instead , she probably would have relied on the Victorian custom of female charity to cover her espionage . Books and Films . Bet Van Lew is a major character in " The Secrets of Mary Bowser " , a novel by former college professor Lois Leveen . The novel became a Target book club pick in August 2012 . The 1987 television movie " A Special Friendship " tells a fictionalized story of the friendship and pro - Union collaboration of Van Lew ( who is presented as a young , rather than middle - aged , woman in the film ) and her former slave Mary Bowser . The 1990 television movie Traitor in My House tells the story of ELizabeth Van Lew from the perspective of her niece ; Mary Kay Place portrays Elizabeth . Her story was also fictionalized in 1995 children ' s book " The Secret of the Lion ' s Head " by Beverly Hall , and in the 2006 novel , " Only Call Us Faithful : A Novel of the Union Underground " by Marie Jakober . The biographical novel " The Spymistress " is set for publication on October 1 , 2013 , by the Penguin Group . As described by a major bookseller , " New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini is back with another enthralling historical novel set during the Civil War era , this time inspired by the life of “ a true Union woman as true as steel ” who risked everything . . . . "