Women in the Civil War

by Larry G. Eggleston

  The 34th Indiana Infantry Regiment was organized at Anderson, Indiana, on September 16, 1861, and was mustered into Federal service on October 10, 1861.

  While Mary Wise was with the 34th Indiana she fought many battles and was wounded three times. The 34th participated in the siege at New Madrid, Missouri, on March 5–14, 1862, the siege and capture of Island #10 on the Mississippi River on March 15 to April 8, 1862, the capture of Fort Pillow on June 5, 1862, the Battle of Port Gibson on May 1, 1863, the Battle of Champion Hill on May 16, 1863 and the siege of Jackson, Mississippi, on July 10, 1863.

  In her last battle, a minié ball wounded her in the shoulder. This was the third time she had been wounded and this time the wound was serious enough to require immediate medical attention. When the surgeon removed Mary’s shirt to tend the wound he discovered that Pvt. James Wise was a woman. She was discharged after recovering from her wound.

  The discharge on the grounds of “Proved to be a Woman” left her right to receive her pay in doubt. She felt that she had as much right to the pay as any male soldier. When President Lincoln heard of her case, he intervened and ordered the army to give her the pay she had earned.

  After her discharge in September 1864, she lived for a while with her friend Mrs. E.B. Gates and her husband, who was a captain in the Union army. Their home was at Lincoln Hospital in Washington, D.C. While living with the Gateses she met and fell in love with an army sergeant named Forehand of the Veteran’s Reserve Corps. They were married at Lincoln Hospital and moved to his home in New Hampshire to live.

  The eight women here had deep feelings about doing their part for the causes they believed in—such deep feelings that they were willing to put their lives on the line as fighting soldiers.

   18

  Elizabeth Van Lew: Union Spy

  She pledged her life, fortune and her sacred honor for the preservation of the Union. She created a spy ring so complex and widespread that it even reached into Jefferson Davis’s home. This great American was Elizabeth Van Lew.

  Elizabeth Van Lew was born on October 12, 1818, in Richmond, Virginia. She was the oldest daughter of the three children of John and Elizabeth Van Lew. Her father John was a native of Jamaica, Long Island, New York. He left New York after a business failure and moved to Richmond. He and his partner, Mr. Taylor, opened one of the first hardware businesses in the south. The business was very successful, and the Van Lews became part of the wealthy Richmond society.

  John Van Lew was married to Elizabeth Baker of Philadelphia, the daughter of the mayor of Philadelphia, Mr. Hilary Baker. The Van Lew family lived in a three and one half-story mansion, located on Grace Street in Richmond at the top of Church Hill overlooking the James River. Church Hill is the highest of the seven hills of Richmond. Their plush home soon became a gathering place for Richmond society and many high-ranking government officials.

  As a young girl Elizabeth Van Lew was sent to Philadelphia for schooling. While there, she lived with her grandfather Hilary Baker, who was still the mayor of Philadelphia. During her time attending school in Philadelphia, Elizabeth developed strong anti-slavery sentiments. When she returned to Richmond these strong beliefs prompted her to beg her father to free the twelve slaves he possessed. Her father was not harsh toward his slaves and he cared for their well-being. When asked to free them, he replied, “They are like children. They could not possibly take care of themselves.” Elizabeth did not agree with her father, and after he died she and her mother freed all the slaves and helped reunite them with their spouses and loved ones. Once free, some of the slaves left and were never heard of again, while others chose to stay with the family.

  Elizabeth Van Lew was known as an outspoken woman who openly expressed her views on slavery. Her act of freeing the slaves was so uncommon that the people of Richmond began to refer to her as “Crazy Bet.” This caused her to lose many of her friends.

  When Virginia voted on May 23, 1861, in favor of secession from the Union to join the Confederacy, both Elizabeth and her mother were deeply saddened. She wrote in her diary:

  It broke my heart when Virginia seceded. Mother and I prayed for our country. Secession and war would be the worst thing to happen to the South. It could not possibly survive. Its best hope was for a short war. Tearing a country apart is never good for anyone.

  Her deep love of country and her prayer for a short war led her to wonder what she could do to help reunite the country. She soon found a way to help. It came after the first land battle of the war, the Battle of Big Bethel, on June 10, 1861. Prior to the battle two units of Union troops mistakenly fired upon each other causing 21 casualties and alerting the Confederate troops of their presence. With the location of the Union troops known and the element of surprise gone, the battle was an easy Southern victory. The Federal troops numbered 2,500 and sustained losses of 21 accidentally killed, 18 killed in battle, 53 wounded and 5 missing. The Confederate forces had only 1 killed and 7 wounded.

  Union prisoners of war began arriving in Richmond soon after this battle. To house these captured Union soldiers, the Confederate government established five prisons in Richmond. They were:

  Libby Prison. This prison, located between Cary and Dock Streets at 20th on the James River and just below the Van Lew home, was used for housing captured Union officers. The prison was a converted warehouse owned by Libby and Sons who were manufacturers of ship candles. The prison boasted of its high security.

  Belle Isle. This prison was set up to house Union enlisted men. It was an island in the James River.

  Castle Godwin. A prison for women suspected, accused, or convicted of disloyalty, spy activities, or harboring deserters.

  Castle Thunder. This prison was for men suspected of disloyalty, spying, and being Union sympathizers.

  Castle Lightning. This prison was for Confederate soldiers who had committed crimes, deserters, AWOL, drunk and disorderly conduct, and other minor infractions.

  Elizabeth openly expressed sympathy for the Federal prisoners and offered to help them by supplying food, clothing and medicine. She also provided them bribe money, books and information about the war. She was allowed to enter the prisons to care for them. While doing this she quickly realized that these men had all been brought through the Confederate lines on their way to Richmond, and thus had knowledge of the Confederate troop movements and their strengths. She realized that such information could be valuable to the Union. She began to gather the information to pass on to the Federal troops.

  She also began gathering information from the officers and government officials who visited her plush home, the gathering place for high-ranking officers and Richmond’s elite. One of her closest friends was the commandant of Libby Prison, Lieutenant David H. Todd, whose half-sister was Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. When Lieutenant Todd was reassigned, she befriended the new commandant, a Lieutenant Gibbs. She talked him into moving his family into the Van Lew mansion as boarders.

  In order to get the information to the Union army, she set up a network of relay stations using former slaves and Union supporters. She also used a farm that she owned on the opposite side of the river, south of Richmond. For security she developed a cipher code which would keep anyone who captured the couriers from reading the message. A copy of the code was found folded up in the back of her watch after her death.

  Elizabeth Van Lew used the code name “Babcock” in her spying activities. She worked as a spy for generals George H. Sharp, Chief of the U. S. Bureau of Military Information (Secret Service); Benjamin F. Butler, commander of the Army of the James; George G. Mead, commander of the Army of the Potomic; and Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union forces.

  Prior to establishing her cipher code, she would tear the message into several pieces and send each piece with a different messenger. Once the code was established, Elizabeth would send former Negro slaves into Richmond with things to sell. These messengers wore brogans with extra thick soles. The soles were hollowed out and contained the coded messages.
Each courier had two pairs of shoes and never returned home with the same pair with which he left. The hollow soles were used to not only send coded messages, but maps, plans, and letters which were to be delivered to General Grant at City Point the next morning.

  One of the operatives who assisted Elizabeth was Mary Elizabeth Bowser, a former slave in the Van Lew home. When Mary was freed she was sent north by Elizabeth to be educated. After receiving an education she returned to the Van Lew home to work with Elizabeth. In 1863 a friend of Elizabeth’s persuaded the personal staff of President Jefferson Davis to hire Mary Bowser as a maid in the Davis home. Acting as an uneducated ex-slave, Mary was able to gather valuable information without being suspected. The information she gathered was not written down but committed to memory.

  Her contact was Mr. Thomas McNiven, a Northern spy posing as a baker. When he made his daily deliveries to the Davis home she would verbally relay the information to him. The information she gathered from the Confederate white house was invaluable to the Union.

  Elizabeth Van Lew. Courtesy of the Valentine Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

  In addition to her loyalty, dedication, bravery, and love of freedom, Mary Elizabeth Bowser was an exceptional actress; she was never discovered. Acting as an uneducated ex-slave incapable of such activities as spying, she successfully accomplished her mission and was a valuable asset to the Union.

  Elizabeth Van Lew was also an exceptional actress. She capitalized on the “Crazy Bet” nickname she was given by the people of Richmond. She pretended to be foolish and eccentric. She would walk around Richmond singing nonsense songs, dressed in strange clothes thus furthering the belief that she was really crazy and incapable of the complex activities in which she was engaged. Although she was never discovered, she always felt that she was in danger of being discovered and arrested. She also felt that she was continually being watched.

  Elizabeth Van Lew had a large hidden room in her home, which was only accessible by a secret stairway. She used this room to hide secret documents and messages as well as runaway slaves and escaped prisoners. At one time she had over 100 men hidden in the secret room.

  She continued to take food, clothing and medicine to the prisons to help ease the suffering and to continue to gather information. During her visits to Libby Prison she became aware of an upcoming escape plan and began preparing her network to help the escaping officers reach the Union lines.

  On February 9, 1864, 109 Union prisoners completed a 60-foot tunnel from the basement of Libby Prison’s east end. The tunnel went under the street and up into a tobacco storage shed. From there the escaping prisoners crossed a yard and went into the street. It was an easy passage. When some of the escapees emerged from the tunnel, they encountered a security guard. The security guard mistook them for Confederate soldiers. Since the guard had been stealing “Yankee Boxes” stored in the shed, he made no inquiry but let them pass.

  Elizabeth Van Lew’s Cipher Code. Reprint from On Hazardous Service by William Gilmore Berymer, 1912.

  The escapees made their way up the hill to the Van Lew home where they were hidden in the secret room and slowly moved out through Elizabeth’s network. This was the largest prison break during the Civil War. Of the 109 Union officers who escaped, 48 were recaptured, 2 drowned in the James River, and 59 safely reached the Union lines. Elizabeth Van Lew and her network were responsible for the success of the escape.

  Based on information from Elizabeth Van Lew, President Lincoln ordered a raid on Richmond. On March 1, 1864, General Judson Kilpatrick led 3,500 mounted raiders to capture Richmond and set the prisoners free. The raid failed and the Federal troops lost 340 troopers and 500 horses. One of those killed was Colonel Ulric Dahlgreen.

  The Confederate soldiers dumped his body in a shallow, unmarked grave. One of the men who witnessed this callous treatment of a Union officer’s body reported the incident to Elizabeth Van Lew. Under cover of night she and a few loyal followers stole the body and gave it a proper burial at the gate of the cemetery.

  She continued her activities as a spy until the end of the war. On April 3, 1865, when Richmond surrendered, Elizabeth Van Lew immediately raised the Stars and Stripes over her home. It was the first Union flag in four years to fly over Richmond and the first to be displayed in Richmond after the surrender. After she raised the flag the Richmond citizens gathered and threatened her. She faced them down, stating, “General Grant will be here in one hour. I know all of you and if you harm me or my property your homes will be burned to the ground by noon.” The crowd then left without taking any action. When General Grant arrived, he assigned a special squad of soldiers to guard the Van Lew home and protect Elizabeth from reprisals.

  The people of Richmond treated Elizabeth Van Lew as a traitor for the rest of her life. On December 16, 1866, at her request, the War Department removed all the files containing communications from her acting as a spy, and turned them over to her. She burned them, which was a great loss to history.

  When Grant became President, he appointed her postmaster of Richmond for her service to the Union. However, when Rutherford B. Hayes became President, he knuckled under to political pressures and demoted her to a mail clerk, despite the fact that he had a letter from former President Grant recommending that he keep Van Lew as postmaster. Soon thereafter, she was transferred to Washington, D.C. After more demotions she resigned and returned to Richmond penniless. The letter from former President Grant also stated that Elizabeth Van Lew was due $15,000 for her service, however, Congress never got around to approving the funds.

  For the rest of her life Elizabeth was financially dependent on others. One of those who helped her was an officer whom she had helped at Libby Prison. This ex-prisoner was from Massachusetts and was a descendant of Paul Revere whom he was named after.

  Until her death September 25, 1900, at the age of 82 years and 11 months, she continued to fight for many other causes including women’s suffrage. The community remained hostile toward her till her death. She was buried in Shockoe Hill Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. She was so hated in Richmond that no one attended her funeral except relatives of the Union soldiers she had helped and her devoted servants.

  After her death, relatives of Colonel Paul Revere (whom she had helped escape), bought a headstone for her grave. The headstone was made of Massachusetts granite with a bronze plaque that read

  She risked everything that is dear to man—friends, fortune, comfort, health, life itself. All for the one absorbing desire of her heart—that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved.

  The stone has this marking: “This boulder from the Capitol Hill in Boston is a tribute from her Massachusetts friends.”

  The service rendered by Elizabeth Van Lew was invaluable in the quest to end the war and reunite the Union. Her courage and dedication to her country demonstrate that she was an extraordinary woman who ranks high among those great Americans who helped preserve our nation.

   19

  Rose O’Neal Greenhow: Confederate Spy

  She was a Washington socialite, an entertainer of presidents, senators, diplomats, kings and queens. She was also a Confederate spy. Her name was Rose O’Neal Greenhow.

  Rose O’Neal Greenhow was born in 1817 in rural Montgomery County, Maryland, where she also spent most of her childhood. She was the daughter of wealthy slaveholders. When she was a young girl her father was murdered by one of his slaves. This tragedy made Rose an anti-abolitionist for the rest of her life.

  When she reached her teens, she and her sister Ellen Elizabeth moved to Washington, D.C., to live with their aunt who ran a boarding house in the old Capitol Building, which later became Old Capitol Prison.

  Rose had long, black hair, dark eyes, and an olive complexion. She was considered a beautiful young woman. She became a friend to many of her aunt’s boarders and learned to love an active social life. Many of the boarders were upcoming statesmen and government officials.

  Several years later, at the age o
f 26, she married 43-year-old Dr. Robert Greenhow of Virginia. Dr. Greenhow was a man of means and well thought of by Washington society. The marriage to Dr. Greenhow assured Rose the kind of social life that she had desired.

  Over the next few years she became the mother of four daughters. Her social status continued to grow and her home became a social meeting place for Washington society. Rose had a dynamic personality and made friends easily. She had a keen sense of humor and a quick wit, which earned her the nickname “Wild Rose.”

  In 1850, the Greenhows left Washington and headed west to San Francisco. Dr. Greenhow saw an opportunity for great wealth in the west, but his vision was short-lived. He suffered an injury to his leg, which eventually led to his death. Devastated and seeing no future for her daughters and herself, Rose moved back to Washington with her girls four years later. She bought a house near the White House at 398 Sixteenth Street. She then set about renewing all her former friendships and re-establishing herself in the Washington social scene. She became a friend to President Buchanan and Secretary of State William H. Seward, both of whom often dined at her home. She often held dinner parties at her home and also entertained guests from the diplomatic circle as well as from Congress. Invitations to her parties were coveted in Washington society.

  Rose O’Neal Greenhow. Courtesy of Leib Image Archives.

  As rumors of civil war began, Rose was not hesitant to let it be known that she was not an abolitionist and that her sympathy and loyalty were with the South. After all, she was a southern woman.