ISABELLA MARIA BOYD ,CONFEDERATE SPY BORN 1844 MAY 9 - 1900 JUNE 11

 

ISABELLA MARIA BOYD ,CONFEDERATE SPY 

BORN 1844 MAY 9 - 1900 JUNE 11

Isabella Maria Boyd (May 9, 1844[1] – June 11, 1900[2]), best known as Belle Boyd (or as Cleopatra of the Secession[citation needed] or Siren of the Shenandoah[citation needed]), was a Confederate spy in the American Civil War. She operated from her father's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia, and provided valuable information to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 1862.

Early life

Isabella Maria Boyd was born on May 9, 1844 in Martinsburg, Virginia (now part of West Virginia).[3] She was the eldest child of Benjamin Reed and Mary Rebecca (Glenn) Boyd.[4] She described her childhood as idyllic.[5] After some preliminary schooling in Martinsburg, she attended finishing school at the Mount Washington Female College in Baltimore, Maryland in 1856 at age 12.[6]

Southern spy

Boyd's espionage career began by chance. According to her highly fictionalized 1866 account, a band of Union army soldiers heard that she had Confederate flags in her room on July 4, 1861, and they came to investigate. They hung a Union flag outside her home. Then one of the men cursed at her mother, which enraged Boyd. She pulled out a pistol and shot the man, who died some hours later. A board of inquiry exonerated her of murder, but sentries were posted around the house and officers kept close track of her activities. She profited from this enforced familiarity, charming at least one of the officers whom she named in her memoir as Captain Daniel Keily,[7] She wrote in her memoir that she was indebted to Keily "for some very remarkable effusions, some withered flowers, and a great deal of important information."[8] She conveyed those secrets to Confederate officers via her slave Eliza Hopewell, who carried them in a hollowed-out watch case. Boyd was caught on her first attempt at spying and told that she could be sentenced to death, and she realized that she needed to find a better way to communicate.

General James Shields and his staff gathered in the parlor of the local hotel in mid-May 1862. Boyd hid in the closet in the room, eavesdropping through a knothole that she enlarged in the door. She learned that Shields had been ordered east from Front Royal, Virginia. That night, she rode through Union lines, using false papers to bluff her way past the sentries, and reported the news to Colonel Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates. She then returned to town. When the Confederates advanced on Front Royal on May 23, Boyd ran to greet Stonewall Jackson's men, avoiding enemy fire that put bullet holes in her skirt.[citation needed] She urged an officer to inform Jackson that "the Yankee force is very small [...] Tell him to charge right down and he will catch them all."[9] Jackson did and wrote a note of gratitude to her: "I thank you, for myself and for the army, for the immense service that you have rendered your country today."[10][11] For her contributions, she was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor.[citation needed] Jackson also gave her captain and honorary aide-de-camp positions.[12]

Boyd was arrested at least six times but somehow evaded incarceration.[13] By late July 1862, detective Allan Pinkerton had assigned three men to work on her case.[14] She was finally captured by Union officials on July 29, 1862, after her lover gave her up, and they brought her to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. the next day.[15][16] An inquiry was held[by whom?] on August 7, 1862 concerning violations of orders that Boyd be kept in close custody.[17] She was held for a month before being released on August 29, 1862, when she was exchanged at Fort Monroe.[18] She was arrested again in June 1863, but was released after contracting typhoid fever.[19]

In March 1864, Boyd attempted to travel to England, but she was intercepted by a Union blockade and sent to Canada.[19] where she met Union naval officer Samuel Wylde Hardinge. The two later married in England.[19] and had a daughter named Grace.[20] Boyd became an actress in England after her husband's death to support her daughter.[citation needed] Following the death of her husband in 1866,[citation needed] she and her daughter returned to the United States.[20] Boyd assumed the stage name Nina Benjamin to perform in several cities, eventually ending up in New Orleans where she married John Swainston Hammond in March 1869, a former British Army officer who fought for the Union Army during the Civil War.[21] They had two sons and two daughters; their first son died as an infant. Boyd divorced Hammond in 1884 and married Nathaniel Rue High in 1885. She subsequently began touring the country giving dramatic lectures of her life as a Civil War spy.[21]

Post-War years and death

Belle Boyd's grave

Boyd published a highly fictionalized narrative of her war experiences in the two-volume Bell Boyd in Camp and Prison.[22] She died of a heart attack in Kilbourn City, Wisconsin (Wisconsin Dells) on June 11, 1900 at age 56. She was buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Wisconsin Dells, with members of the Grand Army of the Republic as her pallbearers.[23] For years, her grave simply read:

BELLE BOYD

CONFEDERATE SPY

BORN IN VIRGINIA

DIED IN WISCONSIN

ERECTED BY A COMRADE[24]

Known as the "Cleopatra of the Secession," Belle Boyd was a spy for the Confederacy during the U.S. Civil War and went on to write a book about her experiences.

Who Was Belle Boyd?

Belle Boyd became a Confederate spy before her 18th birthday. Her Civil War missions often involved transporting information and supplies to Southern troops, and her age allowed her to go virtually unnoticed by Union soldiers. Once the press got a hold of her story and made her famous, Boyd was regularly arrested, although she was never held for more than a few months. She eventually moved to England, where she wrote a book about her spy-related exploits. An actress later in life, Boyd died on stage in Wisconsin in June 1900, at age 56.

Early Life

Maria Isabella "Belle" Boyd was born on May 9, 1844 (some sources say 1843), in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), to Mary Rebecca Glenn Boyd and Benjamin Reed Boyd, a shopkeeper. Hers was a prosperous family with deep Southern roots. From the start, Boyd was a strong-willed, high-spirited and quick-witted person. She once rode a horse into the family's home during a party after being told she was too young to attend. According to Karen Abbott's Liar Temptress Soldier Spy, Boyd told her parents and party guests "my horse is old enough, isn't he?" She enjoyed a comfortable upbringing and was educated at the Mount Washington Female College. Before the winter before the Civil War's start, Boyd lived a charmed life as a debutante in Washington, D.C.

Her home town of Martinsburg was largely filled with Union supporters, but her family believed in the Confederate cause. Her father had even volunteered for the Virginia infantry. It was one of the first towns the Union took when the Civil War began. On July 3, 1861, Union soldiers entered Martinsburg following a skirmish at the nearby town of Falling Waters The following day, a group of soldiers came into the Boyd residence. One of the men got into a confrontation with Boyd's mother. As Boyd later wrote in her memoir, the soldier “addressed my mother and myself in language as offensive as it is possible to conceive. I could stand it no longer." She promptly shot and killed the man. After the Union commanding officer investigated, he said Boyd had acted properly in the situation, and she suffered no repercussions. With that one act, Boyd’s career as the “Rebel Spy" was underway, at age 17.

“Cleopatra of the Secession”

Boyd started out as an informal spy, gathering what information she could. Her talents as a flirt helped her extract information from Union soldiers. She wrote down her discoveries in letters that she got to the Confederate side with the help of her slave or a young neighbor. One of these missives was intercepted and Boyd found herself in hot water with the Union. Despite facing possible execution for her crime, Boyd managed to get off with a warning.

Undaunted, Boyd decided to serve the South in a more official capacity. She became a messenger for Confederate generals P.G.T. Beauregard and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Boyd started out as a courier, carrying information and transporting medical supplies. By the time she was 18, word of her identity and activities became widely circulated, and Boyd found herself something of a celebrity. The press latched on to her with verve, calling her the “Cleopatra of the Secession,” “La Belle Rebelle," the “Siren of the Shenandoah" and the “Rebel Joan of Arc." Her high profile soon led to her imprisonment, however, although she was only held a week and continued her espionage work upon her release.  

READ NEXT

U.S. PRESIDENTS

Ulysses S. Grant

(1822–1885)

MILITARY FIGURES

William Tecumseh Sherman

(1820–1891)

CELEBRITY

The Lifelong Feud Between the Sisters Olivia de Havilland and...

BY SARA KETTLER FEB 07, 2019

One of her most notable accomplishments as a spy came in May 1862. She managed to obtain information crucial to the Confederate cause and gave her side the details needed to help Stonewall Jackson's forces recapture the town of Front Royal. But two months later, Boyd once again got arrested for her work for Confederacy. 

Arrest and Banishment

After this arrest, Boyd was sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. where she spent a month behind bars. She had a longer prison stay the following year, being incarcerated for five months. Boyd then banished to the South, but she refused to stop her work. Instead of remaining cooped up, she set sail for England in May 1864 to transport Confederate papers there. But her ship was stopped by a Union naval ship and  she was again arrested as a spy. Boyd fell in love with one of her captors, a Union officer named Samuel Hardinge. The pair later married and had a daughter together. As she explained in her memoir, she thought that she might be able to woo him to the Confederate side. Hardinge did serve time in prison for giving aid to Boyd.

Despite being apprehended again, Boyd somehow convinced the Union authorities to let her go to Canada. From there, she made her way to England. Boyd turned to writing about her war adventures as a way to make money. She penned in the 1865 memoir Belle Boyd, in Camp and Prison, which also featured contributions from her husband Hardinge on his time in prison.  Boyd also launched a career as an actress. 

Return to the United States and Death

Returning to the United States, Boyd kept performing. John Swainston Hammond, a former Union officer, attended one of her shows and was smitten. The couple married in 1869 and had four children together. Their union ended in divorce in 1884. The charming Southern belle did not remain single for long, however, Boyd married for the third time in 1885 to a young actor named Nathaniel Rue High. To support herself and her family, she returned to the stage in 1886. Boyd took her final bow on fourteen years later. She died on June 11, 1900, during a performance in Wisconsin. She was 56 years old.

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Citation Information

Article Title

Belle Boyd Biography

Author

Biography.com Editors

Website Name

The Biography.com website