Existing comment:
Elizabeth Van Lew, Spymaster:
Elizabeth Van Lew was not as she appeared. Although raised in a prominent Richmond family, she became a key player in a Unionist spy ring. Not only did she help Union prisoners escape, she became a spymaster, managing the exchange of intelligence between her spies in the field and Union command. She used this cipher to encrypt her messages to General Benjamin Butler. The onionskin message carried by one of her servants in his shoe warned a collaborator of possible capture. |