Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster with Gerri Willis

An abolitionist Southern belle turned spy sounds like a character in a novel, but Elizabeth Van Lew was one hundred percent real.

Join award-winning journalist Gerri Willis as she uncovers an unsung spy hero of the Civil War. Elizabeth Van Lew came from a society family in Richmond and when the South seceded from the Union, she went undercover. Van Lew used her status and social skills to assist Union prisoners and ultimately build a spy network that would provide Union General Ulysses S. Grant with crucial daily intelligence. In Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster, Willis explores who worked with Van Lew and how she deployed her agents through the Confederate capital. From legends of a spy in the Confederate White House to the actual hardboiled work of the Van Lew network which included free people of color dangerously pretending to be enslaved, Willis has captured the tense environment that Van Lew operated in as a patriot in a high stakes world turned upside down. She’ll share her fresh research and how there is still much to be learned about the American Civil War.

Following the presentation and discussion, you’ll be able to ask questions via our online platform.