Belle Boyd Newspaper Obituary :: American History Civil War

Yesterday, June 11, 1900, we lost Belle Boyd, one of the most heroic ladies of the Civil War. This far-famed Confederate spy has died after a cardiac arrest at age 56, while on tour in Kilbourne City, Wisconsin. She will be remembered as a great writer, actress, and spy who had courage in charge the most trying times. Belle Boyd played the part of spy as if the war were a lighthearted game of cards.Born on May 4, 1843, she was brocaded just like any other southern lady. She was the daughter of a merchant and grew up in Martinsburg, West Virginia with her parents, Benjamin Reed Boyd and bloody shame Rebecca Glenn, three brothers, one sister, and grandmother. She went by the name Belle Boyd instead of her original name, female horse Isabella Boyd. Boyd attended Mount Washington Female College of Balti much from age 12 to 16 after receiving a preliminary education. People knew her to be a fun-loving debutante. Her slump voice was charming and her figure, flawless. Her irregular features rendered her either completely plain or extremely beautiful. The Civil War started when Boyd was 16, and she became a die-hard secessionist. She raised property for the South and organized parties to visit the troops until her line of achievement took a more active turn. Her spying profession began by chance when Boyd?s come and brothers were off to fight the war, leaving her with her mother, grandmother, baby brother, and sister. A band of drunken coupling officers broke into her home, intent on raising the Federal flagstone everywhere her house and one of the men insulted her mother. She drew a pistol and killed the man. coalescence officers were so charmed by her and felt such discernment for her that they spared her from punishment. Though she was acquitted of the crime, officers still kept close watch over her. Clever Boyd took advantage of them and bewitched them into revealing military secrets. She then make her slave, Eliza Hopewell, carry the secret messa ges to confederate soldiers in a hollowed out watchcase.Her espionage career continued when in 1862, a Union troop gathered in her local hotel. Boyd hid upstairs, eavesdropping through a hole on the floorboards where clandestine Union information was revealed. Late that night, Belle rode out acting and bluffing her way past the Union sentries and conveyed this information to Col. Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates.