Thursday, June 20, 2013

July 29, 1862---Belle Boyd



JULY 29, 1862:  
      
 
  
After being betrayed by a lover, Confederate spy Marie Isabella "Belle" Boyd is arrested by Union troops and detained at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Upon her release one month later, she was given a trousseau by the prison's superintendent and shipped under a flag of truce to Richmond, Virginia.

It was the first of three arrests for this skilled spy who provided crucial information to the Confederates during the war. For her contributions, she was awarded the Southern Cross of Honor. Stonewall Jackson also gave her the rank of Captain and made her an honorary aide-de-camp.

The Virginian-born Boyd was just 17 when the war began. She was from a prominent slaveholding family in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia), in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1861, she shot and killed a Union solider for insulting her mother and threatening to search their house. Union officers investigated and decided the shooting was justified. Soon after the shooting incident, Boyd began spying for the Confederacy. She used her charms to engage Union soldiers and officers in conversations and acquire information about Federal military affairs.

Suspecting her of spying, Union officers banished Boyd, but her periods of exile were always brief and she always returned to spying.

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