Mary Bowser

Mary Richards, also known as Mary Jane Richards Garvin and possibly Mary Bowser (born 1846), was a Union spy during the Civil War. She was possibly born enslaved in Virginia, but there is no documentation of where she was born or who her parents were. By the age of seven, she was enslaved by the household of Elizabeth "Bet" Van Lew, in Richmond, Virginia. The Van Lew family sent Richards to school somewhere in the north, possibly to be schooled by the Quaker community, and then to Liberia through the American Colonization Society. Richards returned to Richmond shortly before the outbreak of the American Civil War, where she was one of many black and white Richmond residents who collected and delivered military information to the United States Army under the leadership of Elizabeth Van Lew.

Richards is often referred to as Mary Bowser. She was likely married to a Wilson Bowser at the start of the Civil War. A 1911 article about her in Harper's Monthly, which was based in part on the faulty memory of Bet Van Lew's niece, popularized Richards' story, and was the source of much of the ensuing lore around Richards, including a 1987 TV movie, A Special Friendship. The Harper's article included details that are not known to be accurate, such as that Richards had worked undercover directly in the Confederate White House, that she had a photographic memory, and that she tried to set fire to the Confederate White House at the end of the war; and other details that are clearly false, such as that her name was "Mary Elizabeth Bowser".

Early years Mary Jane Richards was likely born in Virginia, and was possibly enslaved from birth by Eliza Baker Van Lew and John Van Lew (parents of Elizabeth) or their extended family. The first record directly related to her is her baptism, as "Mary Jane" at St. John's Church in Richmond, on May 17, 1846.

American Civil War

On April 16, 1861, Mary wed Wilson Bowser. The ceremony took place in St. John's Church, just four days after Confederate troops opened fire on Fort Sumter, the first battle of the Civil War. Although the exact details of the intelligence she collected are unknown, the value of this espionage ring was noted by Generals Benjamin Butler, Ulysses S. Grant, and George H. Sharpe. A number of modern media sources, including NOW with Bill Moyers, NPR and The Washington Post, have republished these false or disputed claims. No evidence exists that Van Lew or Richards identified as Quaker, or that either one attended a Quaker school, as is sometimes claimed. It is not known where Richards attended school.

A 1987 made-for-TV movie, A Special Friendship, was loosely based on Bowser and Van Lew's activities. Bowser was played by Akosua Busia.

The heroine of the 2017 novel An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole is based in part on Mary Bowser.

The Civil War podcast Uncivil had a 2018 episode about Mary Bowser. This episode has been criticized for presenting much of the disputed information about Richards – including the name "Mary Bowser" – as fact. The two minute episode wholly presented the disputed claims as fact.

The opera Intelligence by composer Jake Heggie and librettist Gene Scheer is based on Mary Bowser's life. Commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, the new opera premiered at the Wortham Theater on September 20, 2023 with a production directed by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. The opera repeats a number of false claims, for example, "Bowser" setting fire to the Confederate White House, perhaps further confusing audiences about the real history.

Recognition "Mary Elizabeth Bowser" [sic] has been honored by the U.S. government with an induction into the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame in Fort Huachuca, Arizona, for her work in the war. In 2026, the Amazon Prime series "The Gray House" mixed fact with fiction to fill to provide details of the Union spying network that was headed by Elizabeth van Lew and that included her (inherited) slave Mary Jane Richards and fed to Union generals military plans of the Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who lived in that Presidential mansion, "The Gray House."