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Finding Elizabeth
People often ask authors where they get their ideas for books. I don't know about other writers, but Lincoln's Lady Spymaster began in the strange and unsettling days of the Covid pandemic. Many of the young women I worked with were terrified. Isolated, they worried about what might become of their lives and their families. I wanted to introduce them to women who had beaten back challenges and defied the odds. I scoured hundreds of books, interviewed historians and experts to find a subject both compelling and powerful. Elizabeth Van Lew fit that bill and more. Though she began the war as a polite Southern belle she transformed into a steely spymaster whose reports went straight to General Ulysses S. Grant's desk. Working right in the heart of the Confederate capital, Richmond, Va., Elizabeth played the society lady while building a secret espionage network. She maintained a diary throughout the war, where she spilled her most intimate thoughts, sharing how she got scared, nervous and angry as she pursued her self-assigned role of saving the Union and ending slavery. She felt real to me. Though I had started the book hoping to inspire others, I've come to understand she is my mentor. Her persistence, courage, and dedication to a cause have come to inspire me. During the final days of writing Lincoln's Lady Spymaster, I wrote about the the struggle of Elizabeth's last years, and the disdain with which her Richmond neighbors regarded her even in her final days. Sometimes I imagined I heard the rustle of her black silk dress behind me in my office. Her presence, even now, is powerful. For me, she still lives, and I am grateful for that. (Photo: Sarin Images/ GRANGER)
Women in the Civil War
The Civil War opened doors for women to new roles many had never considered. They became essential to the war's prosecution. The new-found freedoms were tailor-made for the opinionated Elizabeth, who yearned to be a part of the action. Flouting society's expectations, Elizabeth infiltrated prisons and assisted Union prisoners, helping some to flee to safety. She met assassins, socialites, escape artists and cross-dressing spies. From grave robbery to a bold voyage across enemy lines, Elizabeth's escapes only drew more daring. In the end, though, she could justly claimed she had helped to reunite the Union and end slavery.
Elizabeth's hometown
Researching Elizabeth Van Lew, it was impossible not to become fascinated by her hometown of Richmond, Va. Once a sleepy Southern village, by the start of the war in 1861 it was emerging as an industrial powerhouse. Walking through town, as she often did, Elizabeth would have seen smokestacks and heard the clanging and hammering of blacksmith's hammers shaping iron and steel at Tredegar Ironworks. And, yet, Richmond was as Southern in some ways as the Deep South. The city was the second largest slave trading center in the country after New Orleans. Upper class families kept traditions like that of introducing their daughters into society with elaborate parties and luncheons, rituals Elizabeth herself had enjoyed.