The age-herald., 1900-07-08
BELLE BOYD DEAD
Woman Spy Who Held Commission as
 Captain in Confederate Army

Captaln Tn COnIeQeraCe Army The sudden death in T<ilbourne, Wis, on | Monday of Belle Boyd the noted spy of | the Confederate army, recalls another leaf 1 in the history of the civil war. It recalls 1 the thrill, the danger, the triumphs, the I reverses, the many ups and downs in the | life of the most determined woRan foe the l Union had. Little has been heard of Belle I Boyd in recent years, and to the present | generation her name recalls nothing; but l the time was when that name caused many I a secret council to place its owner where | she could not add to the harm she had done.
 Living only in her undying love for the cause of the southern people and debarred by her sex from carrying musket she dedicated to the Confederate army the only weapons that she possessed-a woman S beauty and womans wiles.
 But recently out of school when the war | began, she flung to the winds everything | that was dear that she might help the l flag of her choice, and her daring exploits and services to the Confederate army be- came familiar to the whole world. During her career she was twice sentenced to be shot, and for eleven months was a pris- oner in the old Carroll and Capitol prisons in Washington. With indomitable will she Kept in the struggle, however, until 1864, when, while trying to run the blockade with important dispatches, she was cap
 
 President Lincoln.
 So highly did Stonewall Jackson value her services that after his defeat of Gen. eral Banks on May 23, 1862, he sent her this note: Miss Belle Boyd-I thank you for myself and for the army for the im- mense service that you have rendered your country today"
 Her whole career was one of romance and adventure. Born in Martinsburg, Va now West Virginia, in May, 1s43, she was related to a number of the most noted families of Virginia. The Hon. Charles J. Faulkner, minister to France under the Buchanan administration, father of ex- United States Senator Faulkner of West Virginia, and Judge John Blair Hoge United States attorney for the District of Columbia during the Cleveland administra- ton. were her cousins. She had just fin- ished her education in Mount Washington Female College in Baltimore when the war broke out. Her whole soul was with the Confederate cause. Her residence with in the Federal lines and her acquaintance with many Union officers enabled her to gain much important information regard ing the position and designs of the ene- my, which she regularly committed to pa- per, and when opportunity offered dis patched to the nearest Confederate con- mander.
 was able to outwit many Federal officers whose gallantry got the better of their dis cretion. The flowers and poetry of her many epauletted admirers in the hated blue she kept, but all the information of value which they indiscreetly dropped she imme- diately dispatched to her countrymen in grey. General Shields of the Union army was quartered at her house, and when he held a council of war she lay on the floor of her chamber above with her ear to a hole, and, taking down every word, sent it to General Jackson, and thereby helped to win a great battle.
 Very soon afterwards her actions were suspected by the Federal officers and she was arrested, but she soon firted her way to liberty. Acting upon General Jackson's 2