Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War

Willis (Rich Is Not a Four-Letter Word: How To Survive Obamacare, Trump Wall Street, Kick-Start Your Retirement, and Achieve Financial Success), a correspondent and anchor for Fox Business, opens her book with a full list of the cast of characters—identified by geography, affiliation, or a combination of both—as is often done with novels like sprawling, intergenerational family dramas. She then explains what inspired her to tell this story: the loneliness, anxiety, and suffering of many young people (and young women specifically) during the height of the COVID pandemic; Willis believes these young adults women would benefit from hearing stories of resilient women from history. Willis’s model for resiliency and her focus in this book is Elizabeth Van Lew, a Richmond, VA, Southern belle who transformed into a Unionist and, after helping federal soldiers who were held prisoner in the Confederate capital, moved into progressively riskier territory that included developing a spy ring for Ulysses S. Grant. While it may feel like new ways to approach the Civil War are exhausted, this book breathes life into the strength and bravery demonstrated by one woman from a privileged background who took personal risks to support abolitionist and pro-Union efforts. Willis details how Elizabeth built her spy network, the risky missions she undertook, and her undaunted courage.