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Elizabeth Van Lew & Mary Jane Richards
AKA Mary Elizabeth Bowser
Edited and Written by John T.
Marck
Elizabeth Van Lew and
her friend Mary Jane Richards, living in the South during the Civil War,
were prominent Union spies.
On February 26, 2026, a new eight-part historical dramatic television
miniseries titled “The Gray House” began streaming and is available
on Prime Video. Based on the true story, this series is about the
Union-aligned woman-led network of spies led by Elizabeth Van Lew and work
by Mary Jane Richards, known also as Mary Elizabeth Bowser in Richmond,
Virginia during the American Civil War. While there are many daring aspects
of the spying done by both Elizabeth Van Lew and Mary, it was Mary who worked
as a spy to gather information in the house of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis and then delivering it to the Union Army.
Executive producers for The Gray House are Morgan Freeman and Lori
McCreary through Revelations Entertainment alongside Kevin Costner through
Territory Pictures and Big Dreams Entertainment from Republic Pictures.
Written by Darrell Fetty, John Sayles and Leslie Greif, it stars
Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Vereen, Paul Anderson, Amethyst Davis, Daisy Head
and Robert Knepper.
Elizabeth Van Lew
Elizabeth was born in 1818, the daughter of wealthy Northern-born parents,
who lived in Richmond. Siding with the North, she used her eccentric manner
as a cover for her many espionage activities, which included assisting
Union prisoners in escaping from Libby Prison, as well as providing
clothes, medicine, and food for them.
As the war continued, Elizabeth brought her mother and family servants, and
Mary, into her spy ring. Mary Jane Richards, AKA Mary Elizabeth, is herein
referred to simply as Mary, was a black slave, who was born in 1822 and
worked in the Van Lew house until she was freed by her owners, and sent to
Philadelphia for an education, paid for by the Van Lew’s. Returning to
Richmond, she worked closely with Elizabeth in their espionage activities.
At one time, Mary worked as a maid for President and Mrs. Jefferson Davis,
enabling her to obtain Confederate secrets firsthand.
With the fall of Richmond, General Ulysses S. Grant visited Elizabeth.
General Grant, speaking with Elizabeth over a cup of tea on her porch
replied, “You are the one person who has sent me the most useful
information I have received from Richmond during the war.”
When Richmond fell to Union forces in April 1865, Van Lew was the first
person to raise the United States flag in Richmond. Grant was elected
President of the United States in 1869 to 1877. As president, Grant
appointed Elizabeth postmaster of Richmond, where she modernized the city’s
postal system and employed several African Americans, providing them with
the same pay and benefits as white employees. She remained the postmaster
until the new president; Rutherford B. Hayes replaced her in 1877. She then
returned as a postal clerk in Richmond, where she served from 1883 to 1887.
After the war and Reconstruction, Elizabeth lived in her family’s mansion
in Richmond, pictured below. Sadly, she was increasingly ostracized by
society because of her loyalty to the Union writing “No one will walk
with us on the street, and no one will go with us anywhere; and it grows
worse and worse as the years roll on.”
Elizabeth spent her family’s fortune on intelligence and
spying activities during the war and tried in vain to have the Federal
government reimburse her, which was never done. She also attempted to
receive a government pension for her work, but this also failed. She did
receive support from the family and friends of Union Colonel Paul Joseph
Revere, whom she had helped while he was held prisoner during the war. Many
Bostonians collected money for the women who had helped so many Union
soldiers during the war. Into the 20th century, many white
Southerners regarded her as a traitor, but people of color and white
Unionists in Richmond considered her an honored figure.
Elizabeth Van Lew died in miserable poverty
September 25, 1900, and the age of eighty-one. She is buried in Richmond’s
Shockoe Hill Cemetery (above) in the same grave as her niece Eliza Van Lew,
who had been her constant companion in her later years, and who had died
just a few months before her. It has been said that Elizabeth was buried
vertically, facing the north but this is highly unlikely. Cemetery records
do not reflect this circumstance, and such a burial most likely could not
have occurred as multiple people were often buried in a common grave, as
was Eliza. Relatives of Colonel Paul J. Revere donated the tombstone and
her epitaph reads: “ELIZABETH VAN LEW (1818 - 1900) She risked
everything that is dear to man - friends -fortune - comfort - health- life
itself - that slavery might be abolished and the Union preserved.”
The boulder used is from Capitol Hill in Boston and is a tribute from
Massachusetts friends.
In her will, Elizabeth bequeathed her personal manuscripts, including her
account of the Civil War to John P. Reynold’s, Colonel Paul Revere’s
nephew. In 1911, the first Van Lew biography was published in Harper’s
Monthly. The biography implied that she had been successful as a spy
because she feigned lunacy, giving rise to the name “Crazy Bet.” But it is
highly unlikely that she ever actually pretended to be crazy, but rather
she relied on her Victorian custom of female charity to cover up her espionage
activities. The Van Lew Mansion in Richmond was eventually acquired by the
city of Richmond and was demolished in 1911. The next year, the Bellevue
Elementary School, which still remains, was erected on the site. There are
a historical plaque and a marker there that memorializes her activities as
well as those of Mary. In 1993 Elizabeth Van Lew was inducted into the
Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.
Mary Jane Richards
As written herein,
Mary Jane Richards, is the same person as Mary Elizabeth Bowser, and will
continue to be referred simply as Mary. While information on her is sparse,
it is believed that Mary was born in Virginia about 1840. No official
record of her birth exists, and the identity of her parents is unknown. In
1860, to a Richmond court, she said her mother was a slave belonging to
Eliza Van Lew. In public speeches in New York in 1865, she told audiences
that she did not know who her parents were. Then is a conversation with a
Reverend Crammond Kennedy and Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1867, she said her “mother
was white and her father as a mixture of Cuban, Spaniard, and negro’s.
The first likely
entry of her in historical records is a baptism on May 17, 1846, listed as
Mary Jane by the recorder at the St. John’s Episcopal Church in Richmond,
as the colored child belonging to Mrs. Eliza Van Lew. The Van Lew family
sent Mary to school in Princeton, New Jersey in the 1950s. Mary appears in
the records of the American Colonization Society among a group of Black
Virginians bound for Liberia in 1855-1858. In 1860 Mary wrote to the Van
Lew’s about the awful conditions there, so the Van Lewis paid for her
passage back to Virginia. On March 5, 1860, Mary arrived by ship in
Baltimore, Maryland and from here she traveled to Richmond, Virginia. At
this time on the eve of the Civil War, Virginia law forbade African
Americans from entering Virginia, and by her returning to Virginia, was
breaking the law.
In August 1860, Mary was arrested in Richmond for “perambulating the
streets claiming to be a free woman of color.” At this time, she gave a
false name, telling her jailers that her name was Mary Jane Henley. While
still in jail, she then claimed her name was Mary Jones. Finally, she was
released to Eliza Van Lew, having now admitted her name as Mary J.
Richards. At this time in Virginia, if she were a free African American,
her presence in Richmond was illegal and therefore she could have been sold
into slavery for the crime of having entered the state. But Eliza Van Lew
told the authorities that Richards was enslaved and therefore could be
released to her. Richards was released after Eliza paid a ten dollar fine
for “permitting her slave, Mary Jane, to go at large.” Interestingly,
through historical records Mary appears at many times under at least seven
different names. These are: Mary Jane Henley, Mary Jones, Richmonia
Richards, Richmonia R. St. Pierre, Mar J.R. Garvin, and Mary J. Denman.
At St. John’s Church a marriage
was recorded on April 16, 1861, of Wilson Bowser and someone named Mary.
Furthermore, the record shows that the groom and bride were both servants
to Mrs. E.L. Van Lew. It is highly believed that this Mary was Mary Jane
Richards and this is most likely the connection to the name Bowser. Annie
Van Lew, who was six years old at the time, recalled this information to
Harper’s Magazine fifty
years later.
Also at this time, the Civil War had begun,
and Richmond was declared the new capital of the Confederacy. With the war
starting, the Van Lew family quietly talked with friends and neighbors all
of whom supported the United States and abhorred the Confederacy, which in
its founding supported human slavery. Battles fought nearby brought
prisoners and the wounded, and the Van Lew's and Mary offered care and
comfort to the United States Army. By 1864, Elizabeth and Mary had
established contact with the U.S. Government by supplying military
intelligence to various army leaders and also assisted in the escape of
prisoners of war from Richmond. Mary as well as other free and enslaved
African Americans were vital members of the espionage network that operated
in Richmond during the war.
On February 9, 1863, a new identification as a free person of color was
issued to Mary Jane Henley in Richmond. It is believed that this was in
fact Mary Jane Richards because she had used this alias in 1861. In
November 1864, Wilson Bowser was advertised as a runaway slave, presumed to
have self-emancipated by leaving wartime Richmond. Mary also left Richmond
by the end of 1864.
On April 3, 1865, the Union army liberated Richmond and Mary Jane Richards
soon returned. An educated black woman, her knowledge and skills were in
demand following the war, when schools were created to teach the formally
enslaved. Mary taught at various aid societies and at Ryland’s Church,
known also as the First African Baptist Church, and the Ebenezer Baptist
Church in the summer of 1865. By summer’s end, Mary had become disillusioned
with the work and the viewpoints of the white Northern charitable
organizations, and left Richmond.
By 1867, Mary appeared in the records of the Freedmen’s Bureau, operating a
school in St. Mary’s Georgia.
By June 1867, she told
the Freedman’s Bureau that she had married a man named Gavin and would be
closing her school and moving to the West Indies. However, she changed her
mind and decided not to do this.
The last known record of Mary Jane Richards is a letter, written from
Greenwich Village in New York City in October 1870, sent to Elizabeth Van
Lew in Richmond. In it, Mary wrote about her desire not to return to
Richmond to grow beyond the influence of the Van Lew family and to succeed
on her own in New York. Working as a seamstress and planning to return to
school to be a teacher, Mary Jane Richards said what was likely a
final goodbye to Richmond and seemingly disappeared from all historical
record.
Copyright © 2026 By John T. Marck. All Rights Reserved. This
article and their accompanying pictures, photographs, and line art, may not
be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without
prior written permission from the owner/author.
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