21 Facts About Belle Boyd

Maria Isabella Boyd, best known as Belle Boyd was a Confederate spy in the American Civil War.

Belle Boyd operated from her father's hotel in Front Royal, Virginia, and provided valuable information to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 1862.

Maria Isabella "Belle" Boyd was born on May 9,1844, in Martinsburg, Virginia.

Belle Boyd was the eldest child of Benjamin Reed and Mary Rebecca Boyd.

Belle Boyd pulled out a pistol and shot the man, who died some hours later.

Belle Boyd profited from this enforced familiarity, charming at least one of the officers whom she named in her memoir as Captain Daniel Keily,.

Belle Boyd was caught on her first attempt at spying and told that she could be sentenced to death.

Belle Boyd hid in the closet in the room, eavesdropping through a knothole that she enlarged in the door.

Belle Boyd learned that Shields had been ordered east from Front Royal, Virginia.

Belle Boyd was arrested at least six times but somehow evaded incarceration.

Belle Boyd was finally captured by Union officials on July 29,1862, after her lover gave her up, and they brought her to the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, DC the next day.

An inquiry was held on August 7,1862, concerning violations of orders that Belle Boyd be kept in close custody.

Belle Boyd was held for a month before being released on August 29,1862, when she was exchanged at Fort Monroe.

Belle Boyd was arrested again in June 1863, but was released after contracting typhoid fever.

In March 1864, Belle Boyd attempted to travel to England, but she was intercepted by a Union blockade and sent to Canada where she met Union naval officer Samuel Wylde Hardinge.

Belle Boyd became an actress in England after her husband's death to support her daughter.

Belle Boyd assumed the stage name Nina Benjamin to perform in several cities, eventually ending up in New Orleans where she married John Swainston Hammond in March 1869, a former British Army officer who fought for the Union Army during the Civil War.

Belle Boyd divorced Hammond in 1884 and married Nathaniel Rue High in 1885.

Belle Boyd subsequently began touring the country giving dramatic lectures of her life as a Civil War spy.

Belle Boyd died of a heart attack in Kilbourn City, Wisconsin on June 11,1900, at age 56.

Belle Boyd was buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Wisconsin Dells, with members of the Grand Army of the Republic as her pallbearers.