Aahana Swrup
‘The Gray House’ sports a wide range of intriguing characters who populate the town of Richmond, Virginia, as it stands under the governance of the Confederacy in the 1860s. Elizabeth Van Lew is at the center of the narrative, along with her fellow spies, as the operatives of the Richmond Underground, a network of espionage agents who gather intelligence about the South and deliver it to the soldiers of the North for the benefit of the Union.
One of the major factors that allows Elizabeth and her mother, Eliza, two notable socialites in the city’s high society, their ability to move around unnoticed stems from their close, if phony, associations with their fellow neighbors, most of whom belong to Confederate sympathies. However, while Elizabeth’s association with most may be fake, her tentative courtship with Hamton Arsenault, a man with kindred wit but opposing political and moral beliefs, remains real. For the same reason, the Confederate soldier ends up occupying a notable role in the narrative, as a product and perpetrator of the Confederacy’s beliefs and principles.
Hamton Arsenault is a Fictional Character With no Counterparts in Elizabeth Van Lew’s Real Life
‘The Gray House’ presents a dramatized version of history grounded in historical accounts from the American Civil War era. Notably, the show finds a deep-rooted basis in the real-life stories surrounding the spy network woven by the Van Lew family, namely Eliza and her daughter Elizabeth. Thus, the overarching socio-political standing of the real Elizabeth Van Lew and her family informs the characterizations of their on-screen counterparts. However, this same level of historical accuracy isn’t reserved for the depiction of the more detail-oriented personal lives of the character and the people around her.
Consequently, much of Elizabeth’s interpersonal dynamics and relationships, including her romance with Hamton Arsenault, end up being works of fiction, created in service of the story. In real life, there are no historical records of a high-ranking Confederate soldier named Hamton Arsenault from Richmond, Virginia. While the Confederacy entertained the loyalty of many Southern anti-Union soldiers and military personnel, no specific individual seems to have been used as a direct inspiration for the character. Instead, Arsenault’s characterization and storylines are based on the historical context of the time period and the socio-political implications of his belief system.
Furthermore, Arsenault’s character is notably employed in the narrative as a contrast to the protagonist, Elizabeth. Although both high-society individuals share impressive educational backgrounds alongside their wealthy family name, their political opinions remain in total opposition to one another. In the early days of the Civil War, when the full reality of the Confederacy hadn’t yet been actualized in Richmond, Arsenault and Elizabeth are able to look past their differences and pursue a companionship with each other. Nonetheless, soon enough, it becomes clear that their staunch belief systems are standing in the way of their potential romantic engagement.
As a result, Arsenault becomes a valuable asset in exploring the social isolation that comes with Elizabeth’s pro-Union sentiments while living in the heart of the Southern Confederacy. Alternatively, the Confederate soldier’s character also highlights that even people who might be considered honorable in certain aspects of their life can choose to stand on the wrong side of history without timely remorse and penance. Nonetheless, this aspect of the show remains a complete work of fictionalization. In real life, Van Lew has never been recorded to have any romantic entanglements or engagements, least of all with a loyal soldier to the Confederacy.
Read More: Is Stokely Reeves Based on a Real Confederate Slave Catcher?
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