Confederate Spy Belle Boyd

[Mike Serpa]

This is a photo I've not seen.

One of the most famous and notorious of Confederate spies, Isabella Marie Boyd (1843-1900) became a spy at the age of seventeen, serving the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley from her father's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia. During the spring 1862 Valley Campaign she became a courier and provided valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and Stonewall Jackson. A bold and daring young woman, Belle, at times, galloped headlong into the dark with cipher messages and even crept into rooms to eavesdrop on Union Army conferences. General Jackson made her a captain and honorary aide-de-camp on his staff. After being betrayed by her lover, she was arrested on July 29, 1862, and spent a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington. Following her exchange, she lived in exile with relatives for a time, but was again arrested in June 1863 while on a visit to her birthplace, Martinsburg, now West Virginia. On December 1, 1863, she was released, suffering from typhoid, and went to Europe to regain her health. While in England, Belle had a stage career and published "Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison." She died while touring the western United States.
http://historical.ha.com/itm/miscel...6141-47052.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

 

[Patrick H]

Hey, Mike,
This ought to be a fine and interesting thread! I don't know much about Belle, except that her name was very familiar to me and I never questioned why. I'll be following along.

 

[Northern Light]

Great picture, Mike. Thanks for posting!

 

[Mike Serpa]

Hey, Mike,
This ought to be a fine and interesting thread! I don't know much about Belle, except that her name was very familiar to me and I never questioned why. I'll be following along.

I don't know much about her, either. A couple links-

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/belle-boyd-confederate-spy.79642/

http://civilwartalk.com/threads/belle-boyd.75073/

 

[civilwarincolor]

Yikes! Not the most flattering image of her. Have to like the "younger" Boyd better. I went to her house in Martinsburg a few years ago, does not take long, but an interesting little tour.

Martinsburg is also the home of CivilWarTalk. Great place for CW history.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

I've never seen this either, thanks very much! That's one of the things about the Great Belle, not a raving beauty, she dropped men in their tracks anyway- she must have been a hoot! Not, goodness knows her dedication to The Cause- it was her flat charm. GOSH. Men kinda fell at her feet. Hysterical. It was all quite, quite genuine, too- from what I can discover Belle was neither a flirt nor did she distribute her er, favors freely. Nope She just, plain had an incredible amount of charm, personality and charisma- and was extremely feminine. And bright.

You do not read the same catty stuff on Belle Boyd from other females you find on women like Kate Chase or other acknowledged beauties either. It might be out there just have yet to have come across anything. She must have just been one of those people born with that indefinable likability plus. Because there is a huge interest in female spies of the Civil War it's too easy, sticking them all in the same clump. Really a mistake. Without taking anything away from the others two really deserve distinction, Belle and Elizabeth Van Lew ( although phew- lots of catty stuff on poor Elizabeth! ).

 

[donna]

Mike good find. Thanks for posting.

Belle Boyd known as the "Cleopatra of the secession" and "Siren of the Shenandoah" died on June 11, 1900 of a heart attack. She was in town of Kilbourne City now know as the Wisconsin Dells.

 

[LoriAnn]

You do not read the same catty stuff on Belle Boyd from other females you find on women like Kate Chase or other acknowledged beauties either.

Ugh. Seriously? Please tell me it was contemporary cattiness and not via modern day female writers.

 

[LoriAnn]

I don't know much about her, either. A couple links-

Thank you for the links. I think I shall read more about her.

 

[hanna260]

Ugh. Seriously? Please tell me it was contemporary cattiness and not via modern day female writers.

Ehhh... there's some modern day writers who write based on the contemporary cattiness, so I've read some unflattering depictions of her.

I've heard that Belle Boyd was not exactly a knock-out but was indeed immensely charming, too. You can kind of see it in her face: I can just picture it breaking into a huge smile, and I suspect when she was younger, she may have had quite a flirty, mischievous streak. Can just see all those men falling over her!

 

[LoriAnn]

I've taught my girls to not pay attention to whatever the goofball trend is at the time - currently, it's "thigh gap"...ugh - and that any person's greatest physical asset is a warm, sincere smile that accompanies a good nature.

Now, perhaps Belle's smile wasn't always totally sincere , but it sounds like she embodied the concept of substance over surface.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Another LoC photo of Belle Boyd