"From the force of circumstances," wrote Belle Boyd, "and not through any desire of my own, I became a celebrity." In fact, she became the most famous female spy of the war, and arguably the least effective.
Daughter of a Shenandoah Valley farmer and merchant, Belle was a spirited teenager who saw the war as a personal drama. In 1861 she became a Confederate courier, running messages and medicine through the Union lines. Two exploits, she asserted, made her famous. When the Union troops occupied her hometown of Martinsburg, Virginia, Belle killed a soldier who insulted her mother. Later, she provided Gen. Stonewall Jackson with intelligence that led to his surprise attack at Front Royal, Virginia. Jackson wrote, thanking her on behalf of the army, she said - although no one ever saw the letter.
Belle was arrested six times, imprisoned twice and repoted more times than her neighbors could remember. Her problem was not lack of brains but love of publicity. She talked incessantly about her real or imagined exploits, preferably to reporters. The grateful press called her "the Siren of the Shenandoah", "the Rebel Joan of Arc" and "the Sescesh Cleopatra". After her final arrest, late in the war, Union authorities lost patience with her and deported her to neutral Canada.
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