The Union Spymistress

The Story of Elizabeth Van Lew

WINNER: Best Book in Juvenile Fiction, Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, 2025

When America shatters during the Civil War, Elizabeth Van Lew risks everything to save our embattled Union.

As an elite member of Richmond society, abolitionist Elizabeth Van Lew delivers food to starving Union prisoners at Libby Prison, risking her status and her life. She soon exchanges coded messages, coordinates daring escapes, hides fugitives in her mansion, and smuggles them up North.

Drawing on her web of contacts at every level, Miss Van Lew creates the Richmond Underground, a secret network bolstering the Union. Then she infiltrates Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s home through her servant, Mary Jane, who reports on the inner workings of the Confederacy. Using a cipher, she shares troop movements and military intelligence with Union Generals and ultimately provides daily updates to General Grant.

As grisly battles rage in trenches nearby, the weakened Confederates become suspicious of her every move. If she cannot save herself from persecution, how can she help preserve America and end slavery?

The true story of a bold Patriot who led the Union’s most valuable spy ring of the Civil War