Born to slave-holding aristocracy in Richmond, Virginia, and educated by northern Quakers, Elizabeth Van Lew was a paradox of her time. When Virginia seceded, Van Lew's convictions compelled her to defy the new Confederate regime. Pledging her loyalty to the Union, her courage in clandestine combat would never waver, even as her actions threatened her reputation and her life. Van Lew's skills in gathering military intelligence were unparalleled in ingenuity. Although celebrated by Northern leaders and posthumously inducted into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, the astonishing scope of Elizabeth Van Lew's achievements has never been widely known until now.