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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