From the Charleston (S. C.) Daily News, 3/20/1869, p. 2, c. 1

A Washington letter, speaking of the postmistress for Richmond, Va., says: “General Grant says Mrs. Van Lew lost all the property she possessed, and ran the risk of losing her life in behalf of the Union cause during the rebellion. She resided in Richmond while the Federal army was besieging that city, and frequently furnished most valuable information to General Grant relative to the forces, positions, &c., of the Confederates, including diagrams and valuable documents, which were conveyed to the Union army by Mrs. Van Lew’s two male slaves, in whose clothes were sewed up the communications intended for General Grant. In this way she lost her slaves, they remaining on the Union side, and of course being free.”

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