Belle Boyd (1844-1890) was a Confederate spy. Nicknamed the Siren of Shenandoah and the Secesh Cleopatra, she preyed on a culture of chivalry to obtain Union secrets.
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Hello, from Wonder Media Network I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Encyclopedia Womannica.
Our story today takes us back to the American Civil War. This confederate spy was nicknamed the Siren of Shenandoah and the Secesh [Seh-sesh -- as in secession] Cleopatra. She preyed on a culture of chivalry to obtain Union secrets. Let’s talk about Belle Boyd.
Maria Isabella Boyd was born on May 9, 1844 in Martinsburg, Virginia -- in what is now West Virginia. Belle was well off. Her father, Benjamin Reed Boyd was a successful shop owner. Her mother, Mary Rebecca Glenn also came from a prominent local family. Belle’s family enslaved several people.
Belle was a rambunctious child. She once rode her horse into a room full of her parents’ dinner guests in protest after being told she was too young to attend the party. Apparently, this was seen as endearing and she wasn’t punished for disrupting the dinner. Charming feats of daring would be a calling card of Belle’s throughout her life.
When Belle was twelve, her parents sent her to Mount Washington College in Baltimore, Maryland. She spent the winter after graduation as a Washington D.C. debutante and honed her taste for politics and society.
In April 1861, Virginia seceded from the Union. Belle’s father joined the 2nd Virginia Infantry Regiment, also known as the Stonewall Brigade. Belle returned home to Martinsburg and began working as a Confederate nurse. Just a few months later, in July of 1861, Union troops occupied her small Shenandoah Valley town. Belle was quickly on the Union soldiers’ radar. When a few soldiers were hanging a Union banner over the Boyd’s house, they noticed that Belle’s room was decorated in Confederate flags. Angered by this, the soldiers confronted Belle’s mother, demanding that her daughter remove the treasonous flags. When one of the soldiers swore at Belle’s mother, Belle drew a pistol and shot him.
Belle was not punished for this murder and the incident emboldened her to organize against the Union.
After the shooting, Union officials began to monitor Belle’s every movement. But she used this constant surveillance to her advantage. She struck up conversations with the soldiers tending to her. From these conversations, she developed a vast understanding of the troops’ movements. She then slipped this information into letters to Confederate commanders. One of her letters was intercepted, but again, Belle wasn’t punished. She feigned ignorance and perhaps due to her acting chops, or sexist assumptions of the era, Union soldiers bought the lie.
By the fall of 1861, Belle took her espionage to the next level. She served as a courier between Generals Jackson and P.G.T. Beauregard [Bo-reh-gard]. This time, she was caught and detained for her actions. Yet again, Belle found a way out. She convinced the soldiers to escort her back to Confederate lines where they were promptly arrested. This tricky maneuver gave Belle what most spies aim to avoid: notoriety.
In May of 1862, the Confederate army was focused on recapturing the Shenandoah Valley. Belle, peering through a closet floor peephole, gathered vital information on the Union’s strategy that she passed along to General Stonewall Jackson. Her intelligence enabled Jackson’s troops to retake the region.
Later that year, Belle was once again imprisoned and taken to Washington D.C. Rumor has it, the prison superintendent fell in love with her, and she was released in a prisoner exchange. She enjoyed a brief bit of fame in the Confederate South following her release. General Jackson appointed her an honorary aide-de-camp. But in 1863, when she tried to return to her native Martinsburg, she discovered it was now part of the Union state of West Virginia. As a result, she was arrested yet again.
When Belle was eventually released, she wasted no time getting back into the fight. She volunteered to carry Confederate intelligence to England aboard a blockade runner — a ship known for its stealth and speed. Despite this, the ship was apprehended by the Union.
But Belle’s history of escaping punishment was not done yet. She fled first to Canada before eventually landing in London. If you’re wondering how she escaped, she may have had some help. Once she arrived in London, Belle married Samuel W. Hardinge. Samuel, it just so happened, was one of the Union officers who apprehended the blockade runner.
Shortly after their nuptials, Samuel was called back to the United States on charges that he aided and abetted an enemy spy. Upon his return, he was convicted and jailed. It’s alleged that shortly after his release, he passed away. Some historians are skeptical of this and think he may have returned to London to be with Belle. The truth of what became of Samuel remains unknown.
While living in London, Belle, who was pregnant with Samuel’s child, needed a new source of income. With the help of an English journalist, she decided to write down the highly-dramatic story of her life. The result was a two volume memoir called, “Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison”. The voracity of her escapades was immediately questioned. But over time, historians have been able to corroborate much of what Belle claimed.
Belle also put her acting skills to use and pursued a career on stage first in England and then back in the United States. After she returned to America, she married twice more. First in 1869 to an English businessman who had also served in the Union Army. Together they had two sons and two daughters before divorcing in 1884. Belle’s third husband was an actor from Toledo, Ohio.
Belle toured extensively throughout the United States recounting the wild stories of her time in the war. The stories became so popular that there were many Belle Boyd imitators and Belle frequently had to identify herself as the real Belle Boyd.
While on tour in June of 1890, Belle died of a heart attack. She was 56 years old.
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