The Confederate Belle

Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested July 29th 1862 and held for a month in the Old Capitol Prison.

Marie Isabella “Belle” Boyd was born in Martinsburg Virginia [now part of West Virginia]. She operated as a Confederate spy from the father’s hotel in Front Royal Virginia. She passed along valuable information on several occasions to General Turner Ashby and Thomas Stonewall Jackson, while they campaigned in 1862 in the Shenandoah Valley. Although Boyd was arrested several times, it wasn’t until she was betrayed by a lover on July 29th 1862 that Boyd found herself incarcerated in Washington DC’s Old Capital Prison. Boyd was released as part of a prisoner exchanged a month latter.

Belle Boyd died while touring as an actor June 11th 1900 in Kilbourn Wisconsin [now known as Wisconsin Dells]. She was only 56. She is buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Wisconsin Dells.