Belle Boyd - Southern Spy

Southern Spy

Belle Boyd's espionage career began by chance. According to her 1866 account, on July 4, 1861, a band of Union army soldiers saw a Confederate flag hanged outside her home. They tore it down and hung a Union flag in its place. This made her angry enough, but when one of them cursed at her mother, she was outraged. Belle pulled out a pistol and shot the man down. She was fuming. A board of inquiry exonerated her, 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, Captain Daniel Keily, into revealing military secrets. "To him," she wrote later, "I am indebted for some very remarkable effusions, some withered flowers, and a great deal of important information." Belle conveyed those secrets to Confederate officers via her slave, Eliza Hopewell, who carried the messages in a hollowed-out watch case. On her first attempt at spying she was caught and told she could be sentenced to death, but was not. She was not scared and realized she needed to find a better way to communicate.

One evening in mid-May 1862, Union General James Shields and his staff gathered in the parlor of the local hotel. Belle hid in the closet in the room, eavesdropping through a knothole she enlarged in the door. She learned that Shields had been ordered east from Front Royal, a move that would reduce the Union Army's strength in the town. That night, Belle 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, Belle ran to greet General Stonewall Jackson's men, braving enemy fire that put bullet holes in her skirt. 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." Jackson did and that evening penned 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." For her contributions, she was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor. Jackson also gave her captain and honorary aide-de-camp positions.

After her lover gave her up, Belle Boyd was arrested on July 29, 1862, and brought to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington on July 30, 1862, where there was an inquiry on August 7, concerning violations of orders that Boyd be kept in close custody. She was held for a month before being released on August 29, 1862, when she was exchanged at Fort Monroe. She was later arrested and imprisoned a third time. On December 1, 1863, she was released, suffering from typhoid, and was then sent to Europe to regain her health. The blockade runner she attempted to return on was captured and she fell in love with the prize master, Samuel Hardinge, who later married her in England after being dropped from the United States Navy's rolls for neglect of duty in allowing her to proceed to Canada and then England. Hardinge's subsequent attempt to reach Richmond, Virginia was thwarted when he was detained by Union hands, but died soon after his release. While in England Belle Boyd Hardinge had a stage career and published "Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison". Editorial note: Sam was held at Fort Delaware, Pea Patch Island, Delaware. He was released after Belle wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln, threatening to reveal secrets of high officials in Washington. She was writing her memoirs at the time. He was released. Tricia Strader, portrayer of Belle Boyd.

She died in 1900 while touring the western United States. Boyd is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.