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Belle Boyd

Belle Boyd. By Sam Knepprath. Who was Belle Boyd And What Did She Do?. Ms. Belle Boyd was one of the most famous of Confederate spies, Belle Boyd served the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley.

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Belle Boyd

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  1. Belle Boyd By Sam Knepprath

  2. Who was Belle Boyd And What Did She Do? • Ms. Belle Boyd was one of the most famous of Confederate spies, Belle Boyd served the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley. • Born in Martinsburg-now part of West Virginia-she operated her spying operations from her fathers hotel in Front Royal, providing valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and "Stonewall" Jackson during the spring 1862 campaign in the Valley.

  3. How did Belle begin her career in espionage? • She shot a soldier at age 17. Belle did all of these things, but what started her on the road to spying was an incident that resulted in her shooting a soldier. • This soldier was rude to her mother over the hanging of a Union flag over Belle's home. • Belle finally "...could stand it no longer...my blood was literally boiling in my veins. I drew out my pistol and shot him.“ • Union officers felt such sympathy for her that they spared her from punishment. • This led Belle to obtain information from the admiring Union officers, and a career in spying was begun.

  4. How Did She Spy? • Besides the obvious way of romantically flirting with a soldier or officer, Boyd frequented the Union camps, gathering information, and also acting as a courier. According to her memoirs she managed to eavesdrop through a peephole on a Council of War while visiting relatives whose home in Front Royal, Virginia was being used as a Union headquarters.

  5. Was She Arrested? • Yes, twice. • The first time she was confined in Washington's Old Capitol Prison. She was released in a prisoner exchange. • Just months later she was again remanded to prison. • She was released this time because she became ill with typhoid fever. • She was captured and almost sent to prison from the steamer "Greyhound", which had been used as a blockade runner but she wrote the Secretary of the Navy to be released under the condition that she go to Canada. • The request was granted.

  6. How Did She Affect The Civil War • Even though she helped the confederate immensely with her theft of information of battle formations, the way she affected the civil war the most would be what she did after the war. After the war she wrote and published her memoirs, ingeniously named “Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison”. Afterwards she became an actress, sometimes using the stage name "Nina Benjamin“ and staring in such titles as "The Perils of a Spy" and "Cleopatra of the Secession."

  7. Resources • "Belle Boyd Biography." The American Civil War Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.civilwarhome.com/boydbio.htm>. • "Belle Boyd biography." Lakewood Public Library (Lakewood, Ohio). N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/boyd-bel.htm>. • "Maria "Belle" Boyd." Civil War Trust: Saving America's Civil War Battlefields. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2011. <http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/biographies/maria-belle-boyd.html>.

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