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A member of the Richmond elite, Van Lew defied convention and the Confederacy during the Civil War
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Confederates put prisoners in tobacco warehouses where they suffered from despair, disease, and hunger.
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Van Lew secretly fed intelligence information to Union officers over four years.
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Van Lew continuously supplied food and medicine to the soldiers while she helped plan their escape.
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Van Lew's actions caused her to lose her family fortune and her elite status. Paul Revere and his family along with other wealthy people in Boston whom Van Lew had helped during the war, regularly gave her money to help her survive.
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Van Lew died alone at her home as a social outcast.
