The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1865-08-02
TIE ROMANCE OF THE war.


W
Unsuccessful revolutions against es-
tablished authority leave few heroes be-
hind them. The vanquished are not
permitted to gather in the fame which
their leaders may have won, and even
the victors are constrained to celebrate
the achievements which keep alive the
memory of national misfortunes without
that exuberant exultation with which a
people may properly commemorate .victo-
ries in which q common enemy was van
uuished. The time will come when all
that was worst in our late war will be
related more in sorrow than in anger
The time will come when the American
orator desiring to move the pride and in
fame the martial spirit of his country
men, will recount to them the terrible
tenacity with which the legions of Grant
held the lines before Petersburg and
Richmond the dashing bravery dis
played by Sherridans troopers in pursu-
lug Lees retreating and vanquished ar
Ivy: but the orator will have accom-
plished but half his purpose unless he res
minds his hearers that the grim old
chieftain who swept down the Valley of
the Shenandoah like thunder storm,
whose might did not spend itself until it
gathered In increasing fury on the right
Of McClellan's army before Richmond
that he, too, left fame behind him to
which only those bearing the title of
American citizens can lay any claim
Bnt in throwing, as we must. veil over
events which it will not be desirable to
remember in all their we'll defined clear
ness of outline, the deeds of thousands
who took part in the late war will be
forgotten, the record of whose efforts
would have passed into history; if they
were not associated with an insurrectiOn
which is proved by its failure to have
heen at once crime and blnnder. The
fame of a very few of those who took
part in the rebellion has survived it, but
the night of Oblivion has already closed
over the minor actors whose deeds could
have only been brought out on canvass
ky the elevation of the cause in which
they were engaged from rebellion that
failed to revolution which succeeded.
We cannot better illustrate our idea than
BY rhe case of the once notorious Belle
Foyd, q record of whose short career
written by herself is now before us. Belle
BOYD was claimed to be the "Pet Daugh-
teri of the Confederacy; she received
ovations in every city of the South. The
Confederacy is among the things that
were and are not; Belle Boyd is an exile
and an orphan: the Southern cities have.
graver business before them than rem
dering homage to the heroine of the
cause, adherence to which brought with
it nothing but disaster.
BELLE BOYD AS DESCRIBED BY THE
NEWSPAPERS.
L. DSl
by the newspaper reports of her actions,
we should picture her as coarse, mascu-
line but still an attractive woman, who
was not unwilling to sacrifice that maid
enly reserve which the true woman holds
as the jewel of her soul for the cause
which she so zealously espouses She
was described as the tabled Syren who
wooed by her attractions all who came
within the sphere of her influence to de-
struction. In the light of her dangerous
black eyes officers were 10 longer vigil
liant; and by her artful coquetry it was
said she wormed secrets from soldiers
who wonld have suffered death rather
than to have yielded to force such knowl-
edge as they possessed. In word,
among the dangers to which our leaders
were exposed in the Valley of the Shen-
andoah, the influence of Belle Boyd was
mentioned as by no means the least
BELLE BOYD AS DESCRIBED By HERSELF
Miss Boyd draws rather different pic
ture of herself She was born in 1914, so
that OF the outbreak of the rebellion she
was but mere girl. Her parents resi-
ded at Martinsburg, one Of the oldest.
welathiest and most picturesque cities in
the garden of Virgins" beautiful
and verdant Valley of the Shenandoah.
Miss Boyd's parents were in affiuent cir.
cumstances and claimed to rank
among the first Families of Virginia. Of
her home and early life Miss Boyti writes:
BELLE BOYD AT HOME
There is, perhaps, no tract of country
in the world more lovely than the Valley
of the Shenandoah. There is, or rather
should say, there was, 10 prettier or
more peaceful little village than Mar
tinsburg, where was born in 1874 All
those charms with which the fancy of
Goldsmith invested the Irish hamlet in
the days of its prosperity, were realized
in my native village.
Imagine bright warm sun shining
upon o pretty, two stored house, the
walls Of which are completely hidden By
roses and honey .suckles, in most luxuri
ant bloom. At short distance in front
of it flows o broad clear, rapid stream;
around 1t the silver naples wave their
graceful branches in the perfume-laden
air of the South"
This is the picture Miss Boyd presents
of her home Of the society in which
she mingled, she says:
81 believe shall not be contradicted
in affirming that nowhere could be found
more pleasant society than in Virginia.
In this respect the neighborhood of Mar
tinsburg was especially fortunate, popu-
lated - it was by some of the best and
most respectable families of "The Old
Dominion"-respectable, mean, both in
reputation and in point of antiquity, de-
scendants Of such ancestors as the, Fair
faxes and Warringtons, upon whom Mr..
Thackersy has lately conferred immor-
tality.n So y
WASHINGTON SOCIETY IN 1901
According to the custom ofmy coun-.
try, / w&s sent ut twelve years Of age to.
Mount Warrington College. Of which