Rosemary Agonito - Miss Lizzies War: The Double Life of Southern Belle Spy Elizabeth Van Lew

ROSEMARY AGONITO, PHD, is an award-winning author whose first novel, also based on a true story, won the prestigious 2006 Western Heritage Award for the Outstanding Western Novel (previous winners include James Michener, Larry McMurtry, and Barbara Kingsolver). In addition to the award-winning Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn, she has authored five non-fiction books and many articles. She has lectured widely on womens history and issues; appeared on national talk shows on CNN, NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, and others; and has been quoted in print media such as People, Parents, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Marie Claire, Glamour, Mademoiselle, New Woman, Mens Health, and Human Resources Executive. Visit Rosemarys website at www.rosemaryagonito.com.

I BEGAN MY SEARCH FOR THIS BOOK SOME YEARS AGO WHEN A COLleague, the late Dora Lee Dauma, collector of books and all things relating to womens history, suggested that my next historical novel should center on Mary Bowser, a former slave, who served in the home of Jefferson Davis and spied for the Union. Intrigued, I pursued Bowser, only to find that little information existed. Although she left a diary, it had apparently been tossed away by a descendant who failed to grasp its significance. But in that search I stumbled on Elizabeth Van Lew, who had planted Bowser, her former slave, in the Davis home. Happily, as it turned out, I was able to tell both womens stories.

In piecing together Elizabeths life, I was fortunate that she left behind a diary, although almost half of it has been lost. During the war, in constant fear of being unmasked as a spy, Elizabeth took to burying the journal, unwittingly destroying some parts. She also kept a scrapbook with correspondence, newspaper accounts, and other materials. After the war she asked the War Department to return all correspondence and items relating to her Union work. Ultimately, she apparently destroyed most of these materials, likely out of fear of retaliation against herself and others in her network. Despite the losses, what remains is invaluable.

In addition, letters and other firsthand accounts of both her Unionist coconspirators and Confederate officials who dealt with her provide insights. Given her prominence in Richmond society, a number of newspaper reports from the period speak of her as well.

I am indebted to secondary studies by scholars like William Gilmore Beymer, David Ryan, and Elizabeth Varon, who, over the years since Elizabeths death, have worked through the primary sources she, and those who knew her, left behind, making the details of her life accessible. Unfortunately these accounts often disagree in their details (for instance, whether or not Elizabeth was allowed into Libby Prison). In the end, I had to make choices to move the story forward and as a novelist I have, of course, taken liberties and imagined scenes to enhance dramatic effect.

Also helpful are accounts of Union prisoners who describe prison conditions and tell of Elizabeths work among them. And of course, diaries of soldiers on both sides of the conflict provide a searing look at the warits battles and horrorsthat Unionists so vigorously fought against.

Biographies and other historical accounts of Confederate and Union figures (such as Jefferson Davis, Varina Davis, John Winder, and Ulysses S. Grant) fleshed out those characters and kept them from descending into caricatures.

Maps of Richmond and the surrounding region, as well as many photos and diagrams of Confederate sites (such as prisons and official buildings), helped immeasurably in understanding what Elizabeth and her coconspirators were up against. Photos and descriptions of her home, with its infamous fugitive room, also proved helpful. Likewise, my many travels to Civil War sites, North and South, provided indispensable context for the war.

The account of Elizabeths Unionist and spying activities centered, of course, on Richmond and its environs. To me, that left an essential part of the story, the war itself and its horrors, untold. I grappled with how to include this since Elizabeth never ventured to the front lines of battle. Ultimately I settled on the introduction of a fictitious character, Major Allen Rockwell, a Union prisoner who becomes Elizabeths love interest and eventually returns to battle. Rockwell enables us to follow the progress and dreadfulness of the war itself as Elizabeth and her Unionist network struggle to bring that fighting to an end. I trust that Elizabeth, in her place of rest, will forgive me this fabrication since it in no way affects the truth of her actual antislavery, pro-Union efforts in the book. Historical fiction, after all, grants us the ability to use fiction to make the story more real for the readerin a way that sometimes reality cannot.

Similarly, because the names and faces of so many of the people she helped are lost to us (like the slaves she helped escape and the poor she ministered to in Richmonds poverty-stricken neighborhoods), I have created characters who represent a composite picture of those lost individuals: the group of seven slaves escaping to Elizabeth in the wake of Dahlgrens attempted raid on Richmond and Emmie at the almshouse, who gives voice to Richmonds lower classes.

Finally, I want to address a most unfortunate myth that took hold in some quarters after Elizabeth diedthat she was crazy. The myth (begun by the speculation of John P. Reynolds, who wrote on her death that Elizabeth succeeded as a spy because she acted crazy, making people think her harmless) has both benign and malicious motivations among those taking up this falsehood. One view grows from the feeling that she must have been crazy to expend her fortune and risk her life and reputation on antislavery and Unionist causes. No sane Southern lady would defy social custom in this way. These folks simply cannot grasp that one would rationally choose such a path. The other view is a deliberate attempt to undermine and trivialize Elizabeth to exonerate the incompetence of a Confederacy incapable of unmasking a serious threatfrom a woman, no less. To treat her as a powerful person with extraordinary organizational skills, a rational force to be reckoned with, is to admit that she was smarter than the men she repeatedly outwitted. Elizabeth Varon, preeminent Van Lew scholar, argues that not a shard of evidence exists for the crazy Bet legendquite the opposite. Elizabeth prided herself on her rationality and conducted herself as such. Among those who knew her best, her friend Eliza Carrington wrote a vindication of Van Lews life (never published), referring to her as possessed of a logical mind and affirming, I have never known as noble a woman.

Special thanks to my editors at Globe Pequot Press, Erin Turner, who believed in the book, and Meredith Dias, project editor; my colleagues, Civil War historian Hiram Smith and literature instructor Janet Muir, who read the book and gave valuable feedback; Katherine Wilkins at the Virginia Historical Society and Hal Jespersen for map help; members of my reading group, Mary Krause, Renee Gadoua, Diana Putzer, and Jessica Christaldi, who allowed themselves to be turned into a focus group, especially Jessica, who suggested the title; and Joseph Agonito, historian and writer, who served as my endless sounding board.

Beymer, William Gilmore. On Hazardous Service: Scouts and Spies of the North and South. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912.

Blakey, Arch Frederic. General John H. Winder, C. S. A. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1990.

Catton, Bruce. The Centennial History of the Civil War. 3 Volumes. New York: Doubleday, 1961.

Cox, Clinton. Fiery Vision: The Life and Death of John Brown