Belle Boyd Newspaper Obituary :: American History Civil War

Yesterday, June 11, 1900, we lost Belle Boyd, single of the most heroic ladies of the Civil warfare. This famous Confederate spy has died by and by a cardiac arrest at age 56, while on tour in Kilbourne City, Wisconsin. She will be remembered as a expectant writer, actress, and spy who had courage in even the most trying times. Belle Boyd play the part of spy as if the war were a lighthearted support of cards.Born on May 4, 1843, she was raised just like all other s pop outhern lady. She was the daughter of a merchant and grew up in Martinsburg, West Virginia with her parents, Benjamin Reed Boyd and Mary Rebecca Glenn, three brothers, angiotensin converting enzyme sister, and grandmother. She went by the name Belle Boyd instead of her original name, Maria Isabella Boyd. Boyd attended Mount upper-case letter Female College of Baltimore from age 12 to 16 after receiving a overture education. People knew her to be a fun-loving debutante. Her low voice was charming and her figur e, flawless. Her improper 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 money for the South and organized parties to experience the troops until her career took a more active turn. Her spying trade began by chance when Boyd?s father and brothers were off to fight the war, passing her with her mother, grandmother, baby brother, and sister. A band of drunken Union officers broke into her home, enwrapped on raising the Federal flag over her house and one of the men insulted her mother. She drew a pistol and killed the man. Union officers were so catch by her and felt such sympathy for her that they spared her from punishment. Though she was acquitted of the crime, officers unchanging kept close watch over her. Clever Boyd took advantage of them and capture them into revealing military secrets. She then made her slave, Eliza Hopewell, carry the secret messages to attendant 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 reconnoitering for the Confederates.