Born: May 4, 1844 Died: June 11, 1900 Biography: Maria Isabella Boyd, better known as Belle Boyd, was born in Martinsburg, West Virgina, on May 4, 1844. Belle was the oldest child of Benjamin Reed and Rebecca Glenn Boyd. Belle's espionage career began quite by chance. In 1861, a band of drunken Union soldiers broke into her house in Martinsburg, intent on raising the U.S. flag over her home. When one of the soldiers insulted her mother, she drew a pistol and killed him. A board of inquiry exonerated here, however sentries were posted all around her home, and officers kept close track of her activities. She profited from this forced familiarity, charming Captain Daniel Keily into revealing military secrets to her. Belle would then conveyed those secrets to Confederate officers via her slave, Eliza Hopewell, who would carry the messages in a hollowed out watch case. One evening in mid May, General James Shields and his staff met in the parlor of the local hotel. All the while Belle was hidden upstairs, listening to their every word through a knothole in the floor. She'd learned that shields was to travel east, a move that would reduce the Union Army's strength at Front Royal. That night, Belle rode through Union lines, using false papers to bluff her way past the sentries, and reported what she'd heard to Colonel Ashby, then she returned to town. When the Confederates advanced on Front Royal on May 23rd, Belle ran to greet Stonewall Jackson's men. She told an officer to pass the word along to Jackson that the "Yankee force is very small. Tell him to charge right down and he'll catch them all." Upon getting the message Jackson penned the following reply to Belle, "I thank you, for myself and the army, for the immense service that you have rendered to your country today." She was awared the Southern Cross of Honor for her work for the Confederacy. Betrayed by her lover, Belle was arrested on July 29, 1862 and held for a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. She was released a month later in an exchange for other people. She was in exile with relatives for a while, but was arrested a second time in June of 1863 while visiting Martinsburg. She was released on December 1, 1863, suffering from typhoid, she was sent to Europe to regain her health. While in England she met and fell in love with Samuel Wylde Hardinge, a Union Naval officer. Samuel Hardinge attempted to reach Richmond, he was detained by Union soldiers for a time, only to die soon after his release. In 1869, Belle Married John Swainston Hammond in New Orleans. The marriage ended in divorce 15 years later. She later married Nathaniel Rue High a year later in 1885. Belle became an actress after the war was over. She died June 11, 1900 in Kilbourne City, Wisconsin, (now known as Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin) while touring the United States. She is buried in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Wisconsin Dells.