A Newspaper Account of the Exploits of Belle Boyd

TerryB

Lt. Colonel
Joined
Dec 7, 2008
Location
Nashville TN
Belle Boyd has some gaps in her bio that are hard to reconcile. Many sources say her second husband, Sam Hardinge died in England in 1866. However, I've turned up at least two news accounts from January, 1869 saying that the Supreme Court of New York had granted her a divorce. She didn't marry her third husband until later in that year. In November 1869, she was committed to an insane asylum in San Francisco, and was released in December of that year, having given birth to a child.

In this article, a review (favorable I might add) of her stage performances is given, along with some of her Civil War exploits. Southern audiences/ critics tended to lavish praise on her, while the New York papers were underwhelmed. In Memphis, N.B. Forrest and James Chalmers attended her performance in October 1867 and, along with a host of others, invited her out to dinner in oder that they might "bestow a benefit" on her. I guess that means a little something in her Christmas envelope.

boyd2.jpg
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015775/1869-03-07/ed-1/seq-3/#date1=1868&index=16&rows=20&words=Bell+belle+Belle+Boyd&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1869&proxtext=belle+boyd&y=15&x=20&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
 
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I don't know anything about Belle's acting abilities, but you can't form an impression based on the NYC papers of the day. Gee whiz, talk about snarkey. You read papers from elsewhere in the state, seem pretty normal, up and down on most subjects, some nice articles, a lot of positive takes on life in general. New York City papers? Oi. Just a nasty, negative tone to a lot of them. If they didn't like Boyd, I just don't think it would have necessarily meant she was a terrible actress. Maybe she was, it just wouldn't pay to use those as THE source. :smile:
 
From what I've read about Boyd, her contribution to the war was more in the realm of inspiration and publicity than any real intelligence contribution. The "news" she brought to Jackson's troops in the Valley can't really have been news to them (Jackson had a rather able intelligence and mapping crew) except possibly as confirmation.
 
I don't know anything about Belle's acting abilities, but you can't form an impression based on the NYC papers of the day. Gee whiz, talk about snarkey. You read papers from elsewhere in the state, seem pretty normal, up and down on most subjects, some nice articles, a lot of positive takes on life in general. New York City papers? Oi. Just a nasty, negative tone to a lot of them. If they didn't like Boyd, I just don't think it would have necessarily meant she was a terrible actress. Maybe she was, it just wouldn't pay to use those as THE source. :smile:
One critic wrote something like "She is not a great actress, nor is she a terrible one. Being neither, never will she become any better than she already is, not having the capacity to grow any further." Wish I had it in front of me. A West Va paper wrote only that she did not "take" with the New York audiences.
 
From what I've read about Boyd, her contribution to the war was more in the realm of inspiration and publicity than any real intelligence contribution. The "news" she brought to Jackson's troops in the Valley can't really have been news to them (Jackson had a rather able intelligence and mapping crew) except possibly as confirmation.
I'm going to have to check up on this. I think Henry Kyd Douglas mentions seeing her riding up waving her bonnet, but some think he made that up. She was an inspiration, but it may well be that her "news" was already known. Douglas made a long weary ride to Jackson to give him a piece in info he already had from other sources, or was that something I watched in a movie?
 
One more thing on her divorce from Hardinge, who did supposedly die, was that she had cited her reason as adultery. But many stories seem to imply he died in England or left her there to go to the US on business. One site simply has his death date as 1866 followed by a question mark. I can't see her getting a divorce from a dead guy, whether he cheated on her or not. :confused:
 
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