Described by the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps Hall of Fame as “one of the highest placed and most productive espionage agents of the Civil War,” Mary Elizabeth Bowser was a freed slave from Richmond, Virginia, who got herself hired on as a servant in Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ household. For the duration of the war, Bowser fed to a Union spymaster everything she heard or read about troop strategy, movements, or plans while never losing her nerve or giving away her identity as a gushing leak of crucial information. It’s clear that Davis’ and his other military leaders held a perspective that underestimated African-American capabilities. And underestimating an in-your-face woman can lose the war for you.
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