Boyd, Belle (1844-1900), was a Confederate spy. She began her career when she shot a Union soldier in her home at Martinsburg, Virginia, now West Virginia. At the age of 17, she became an expert in using secret codes and supplying the Southern armies with information about Northern troop movements.
Northern troops captured and released her three times. She was caught the third time in 1864, on board a ship that was trying to get past the Union blockade. Here she was put in the custody of a young ensign named Sam Wylde Hardinge. He fell in love with her. After her release later that year, they fled to England and were married. Hardinge died soon afterward.
In England, Belle wrote an autobiography called Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison (1865), an exciting and appealing account of her adventures. She became an actress in England and returned to the United States, where she gave dramatic lectures on her experiences. She married twice after Hardinge’s death. She was born on May 9, 1844, in Martinsburg. She died on June 11, 1900.
