A Black Woman from Norfolk Stole Plans for CSS Virginia for the Union

From the February 24, 2020, Virginia-Pilot "A black woman from Norfolk stole Confederate ship plans for the Union" by Katherine Haffner.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles long remembered the service Mary Louvestre "rendered  under extreme peril in the winter 1861-'62."

At the time, the Confederacy was building an ironclad, the CSS Virginia, out of the the former USS Merrimack.  Confederates were very careful about keeping this secret.  The Union was extremely anxious to get information on it.

"It was whilst we were in this state of anxiety, with but vague  and indefinite information, that this colored woman, Mary (Louvestre), came to the Navy Department and requested to see me alone," Welles wrote a decade later.

Louvestre, of Norfolk, brought him a paper  written by a mechanic who was working on the Virginia.  Her information corroborated other information they had on the ship's progress.

Welles now knew that he had to complete the USS Monitor as soon as possible.

Welles wrote in his letter that he'd always remember Mary Louvestre's "zeal and fidelity."  Very little else is known about her, even the correct spelling of her name.

--Old B-Runner