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2 unusual facts about Elizabeth Van Lew


Elizabeth Van Lew

Recent research by Lois M. Leveen suggests that although Bowser used several pseudonyms during and after the war, making her contributions especially difficult to document, newly uncovered sources confirm her involvement in the Union espionage circle run by Van Lew.

It has been widely suggested that Van Lew convinced Varina Davis to hire Bowser as a household servant, enabling Bowser to spy in the White House of the Confederacy.


Shockoe Hill Cemetery

The cemetery holds the graves of U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall, attorney John Wickham, Revolutionary War hero Peter Francisco, famed Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew, Virginia Governors William H. Cabell, John Munford Gregory (acting), and John M. Patton (General George S. Patton's great-grandfather), Judge Dabney Carr, United States Senators Powhatan Ellis and Benjamin W. Leigh, and dozens of Confederate soldiers.


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