Southern Lady, Union Spy Elizabeth Van Lew to appear at York CWRT meeting

(Cannonball) The York Civil War Round Table will feature Living Historian Suzanne Doucette portraying in first person Elizabeth Van Lew, Civil War spy at its monthly meeting on Wednesday, January 19, 2011.
Elizabeth Van Lew was a well-born resident of Richmond, Virginia who built and operated an extensive spy ring for the United States during the American Civil War. Under the nose of the Confederate government, Van Lew gathered intelligence, hampered the Southern war effort, and helped scores of Union soldiers escape from Richmond prisons. A Northern sympathizer in the Confederate capital, Van Lew led what one historian called "the most productive espionage operation of the Civil War." Continued