During the pandemic lockdown, Fox Business journalist Gerri Willis noticed how anxious and depressed some of the young women she worked with had become with the isolation.

It was enough to motivate her to look for a woman from American history to profile, someone who’d shown bravery under extreme circumstances. Willis considered dozens of possibilities, eventually focusing on Richmond’s own Elizabeth Van Lew whose courage, persistence and intelligence seemed extraordinary to Willis.

The resulting book, “Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist and Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War,” will be the topic of a talk with Willis on June 19 at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.

Van Lew was wealthy, the daughter of a successful hardware merchant, and her family had been well regarded before the war. Such a life afforded Van Lew the opportunity to become acquainted with many of the movers and shakers in Richmond society. Supreme Court justices and European opera singers were frequent guests at their home in the antebellum days. Edgar Allan Poe read “The Raven” to a drawing room of Southern debutantes.

“Her money gave her power and a sort of invincibility, so people were afraid to question her directly,” Willis says. “And, most important, during the war she used her wealth as a tool to bribe officers and influence the course of history.”

At first, Van Lew assisted the Union officers held captive in Libby Prison by helping them escape to Union lines, but as the war ground on she placed agents in the Confederate war department and in Jefferson Davis’ home. Historians have determined that in the final months of the war, Van Lew ran a spy ring more productive than any other in either the North or South. “Her reports synthesized material from spies she’d placed throughout the city,” Willis says. “They helped General Grant time his final assault on the Confederate army, bringing the war to a close.”

Willis sees Van Lew’s training as a Southern belle as having been key to her success as a spy. It allowed her to play the role of a Confederate supporter with ease. “Her abilities to entertain men with lively conversation and set them at ease helped her get what she needed from Confederate officers, including access to Union prisoners,” Willis says. “It also meant that they had a difficult time discovering her real identity as a spy.”

“Her reports synthesized material from spies she’d placed throughout [Richmond],” Willis says. “They helped General Grant time his final assault on the Confederate army, bringing the war to a close.”

Research shows that Van Lew was extremely intelligent, well read and could have a conversation with anyone. To those in her family, she was thought of as loyal and protective. “She liked a good joke, but didn’t suffer fools gladly,” Willis says. “She liked to be in charge, was perhaps a little bossy, but she also had great empathy for those in trouble.”

Not surprisingly, Richmond became ground zero for Willis’ research. She found Van Lew’s diary to be invaluable, providing insight into the character of a woman leading a most unusual 19th century life. The Library of Virginia, the New York Public Library and Richmond newspapers of the period also provided rich sources of detail. “Given my background as a reporter, I found being in her hometown and walking around her Church Hill neighborhood, visiting her church, St. Johns, and the Capitol Square to be inspirational.”

Although challenging to write, Van Lew’s transformation from a young and well-meaning socialite — she might have spent her life assisting the poor had the war never happened — into a mentally tough and relentless operator determined to help the Union win the war and bring an end to slavery made for a compelling storyline of Van Lew’s evolution.

After the war ended, Van Lew became postmaster of Richmond, an unusual appointment made by Grant himself. Willis was surprised to learn that she never left Richmond, despite her former society friends and neighbors ostracizing her.

“She died in the house she had spent the war in, a mansion on Church Hill that was torn down to build a school,” says Willis, adding that it “wasn’t even named for her.” [Note: In 1914, the Bellevue School became one of the first three public elementary schools in Richmond and it remains at 2301 E. Grace St. on the site of Van Lew’s former home, where it was recognized as a historic site by the Richmond Historical Foundation of Virginia.]

When Willis went looking for a brave American woman to profile, she discovered what longtime Richmonders have long known: Van Lew isn’t just a major historical figure, she’s trailblazing gender role model, accomplishing things that men couldn’t.

Willis sees her legacy as that of a woman who risked everything — wealth, reputation and safety — for a cause she knew was just.

“Her brilliance and bravery helped both preserve the Union and end slavery, even as it cost her dearly in her own time,” says Willis. “Her legacy is one of radical courage, intellectual defiance and moral conviction.

“Lincoln’s Lady Spymaster: The Untold Story of the Abolitionist and Southern Belle Who Helped Win the Civil War” book talk with Gerri Willis, June 19, noon, at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture, 428 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard. Tickets are required for in-person admission though you don’t need them to join live on YouTube or Facebook. Tickets