Belle Boyd:
The Teenaged Spy

Fearless and fiercely loyal to the South, Belle Boyd became a Confederate spy at the age of 17, using her flirtatious charms to pry information from Union officers and soldiers posted near her home in Martinsburg, Virginia (modern-day West Virginia).

camera icon - click to for more details about the image

From top: Belle Boyd's home; Belle Boyd; Belle Boyd kills a Union officer

Fearless and fiercely loyal to the South, Belle Boyd became a Confederate spy at the age of 17, using her flirtatious charms to pry information from Union officers and soldiers posted near her home in Martinsburg, Virginia (modern-day West Virginia).

In July 1861, Boyd shot and killed a young Union soldier after he and others attempted to raise their flag over Boyd’s residence and insulted her and her mother. She was tried and acquitted for the shooting, ruled a justifiable homicide. After her act of rebellion was widely publicized, Boyd became a Southern celebrity, known to the Union Army and the press as La Belle Rebelle.

Boyd later moved to Front Royal, Virginia, taking a room at her aunt’s hotel. From there, she socialized with Union soldiers, collecting intelligence about Union Army forces in the area and passing the information to Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson during his 1862 Valley Campaign. She also operated as a courier between Jackson and other Confederate commanders.

In May 1862, Union General James Shields became a resident at the same hotel as Boyd. On one occasion, when Shields met with his officers, Boyd eavesdropped on the discussion, learning of Shields’ plans and the composition and positioning of his troops. Early the next morning, she set out for a Confederate cavalry camp, traveling fifteen miles to deliver the detailed intelligence in person. The vital information was conveyed to Jackson in time to be factored into his plans.

camera icon - click to for more details about the image

From left: Union General James Shields; Confederate Prisoners, Front Royal, Virginia; Belle Boyd; Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson

While Boyd’s espionage was of modest value, she did not lack daring. During Jackson’s assault against Union forces in Front Royal, Boyd raced through a hailstorm of bullets to advise his aides that the Union was planning to destroy the local bridges leading out of Front Royal, that there was only a small unit of Union soldiers in town, and they should attack quickly. Jackson did so, and later wrote to Boyd, “I thank you, for myself and the army, for the immense service that you have rendered your country today.”

Boyd’s exploits attracted the attention of both Northern and Southern newspapers, provoking an agitated Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to issue an arrest warrant in July 1862. Seized by one of Union spymaster Allan Pinkerton’s agents, Boyd was held at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C., and ultimately released as part of a prisoner exchange the following year. She was deported to Richmond, and in 1863 returned to Martinsburg to resume her spying. After another arrest, Boyd contracted typhoid fever in prison, and was again transferred to Richmond.

camera icon - click to for more details about the image

From left: Belle Boyd's 1865 book; Secretary of War Edwin Stanton; Belle Boyd's carte de visite; Boyd prison records; Old Capitol Prison, Washington D.C.

Unable to return to Martinsburg, she traveled to Europe in early 1864 aboard a blockade runner to escape the war and follow in the footsteps of Rose Greenhow, whom she admired greatly. After the ship was captured by a Union Navy warship, Boyd charmed one of her captors, and, ironically, the two fell in love and married. In 1900, at the age of fifty-six, Boyd died of a heart attack while on a speaking tour in Wisconsin.

camera icon - click to for more details about the image

Boyd letter to President Lincoln

camera icon - click to for more details about the image

Boyd letter to President Lincoln