There was more to this house servant than just serving tea. She was one of the Union’s most important spies during the Civil War, at the behest of her former mistress.
MARY Elizabeth Bowser and her mistress, Elizabeth Van Lew, engaged in an ingenious and elaborate spy mission during the Civil War, giving crucial information to the Union Army.
Some details of Bowser’s life are sketchy, but it is believed she was born into slavery around 1839 in Richmond, Va. She was owned by John Van Lew. Upon his death, his daughter, Elizabeth, freed all of her father’s slaves. Mary was kept on as a paid servant. Elizabeth sent her to Philadelphia to attend the Quaker School for Negroes in the 1850s.
Upon her return to Richmond, Mary married William Bowser, a free black man, and continued to work for the Van Lews. Elizabeth Van Lew was a staunch abolitionist and Union supporter who came under fire for helping Union soldiers during the Civil War. To cover up her actions, she took on a slovenly, slightly crazy persona, which earned her the nickname “Crazy Bet.” It was also around this time that she developed
a scheme to help the Union soldiers by spying on the Confederate Army, but she needed help. What better place to pull this off than in the home of the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, and who better to help her than the seemingly dimwitted Mary?
“Crazy Bet” helped captured Union soldiers escape, and hid coded messages in their shoes or in hollowed egg shells. She also hid escaped prisoners in a secret room in her family’s mansion.
For her part, Mary became “Ellen Bond,” seemingly dumb but able servant. She went to work in the Davis’ house, serving at functions hosted by Davis’ wife, Varina. The Davises liked “Ellen’s” work and hired her full time, believing that she was an illiterate slave.
In the course of doing her job, Mary was able to gain invaluable information. She overheard conversations about troop strategies and movement between President Davis and his advisers and military officers. She was able to read letters and other documents that were left out in plain site in the president’s private study. Mary had a photographic memory and memorized everything she saw and heard, word for word. By the time Davis realized there was a leak in his house, it was too late to do anything about it.
Mary passed what she had learned to Elizabeth during visits to the Van Lew farm and to Thomas McNiven, a baker who made deliveries to the Davis house. Before McNiven’s death in 1904, he told his daughter about these meetings.
“Everything she saw on the rebel president’s desk, she could repeat word for word. She made a point of always coming out to my wagon when I made deliveries at the Davis’ home to drop information,” he said.
During the last days of the Confederacy, it was finally suspected that Mary was the mole. She fled the scene in January 1865, but not before an unsuccessful attempt at burning down the Confederate White House. No one saw or heard from her again. There is no record of her life or death after she left Richmond.
Just how good was the information she provided? When the city of Richmond fell during the Civil War, Union General Ulysses S. Grant said to Mary over a cup of tea, “You are the one person who has sent me the most useful information I have received from Richmond during the war.”
“Crazy Bet” paid for her Union loyalty. Her inheritance was gone and she was ostracized for her actions against the Confederacy. She died in poverty in 1900.
Government records detailing Van Lew’s activities and Bowser’s information were destroyed for the pair’s protection, and a journal that Bowser purportedly kept was inadvertently thrown out by her family in 1952.
Mary Elizabeth Bowser was honored for her contributions with an introduction into the military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame.
NEW YORK POST ACTIVITIES
USE the Internet or other reference source to learn more about Mary Elizabeth Bowser and Elizabeth Van Lew.
HAVE a class discussion on the dangers each woman faced in carrying out their activities for the Union.
MAKE a list of questions that you would havelike to have asked the women.
Today’s lesson fulfills the following New York standards: ELA 1c, 3c, 3d, 4a, 4b, 5a Social Studies 1 C