Cold Open 

It’s July 29th, 1862, at a mansion in Front Royal, Virginia. The American Civil War is underway, and the city that once a Confederate stronghold, is now swarming with Union troops. 

18-year-old Belle Boyd rushes down the hall of the mansion toward her bedroom. She’s wearing a long dress, a soldier’s belt around her waist and a bandana decorated with Confederate stars. 

Closing herself in her room, she snatches a piece of paper from her desk. 

As fast as she can, Belle scribbles a note. It’s to a Confederate commander whose men are hiding in the foothills surrounding Front Royal. The note explains that Union troops are gathering strength to attack. Belle has been waiting for the right moment to send the note, but now, she’s run out of time. Union soldiers are on their way to Belle’s house.

So once she finishes writing it, she hands the note to her enslaved maid… who hides it inside a book and promises to deliver it as soon as she can. 

But just at that moment, Belle’s butler arrives at her bedroom door, telling her that a Union officer wants to see her downstairs.

Belle descends the stairs with caution. Then in the parlor, she finds a stern-looking soldier who smells like he hasn’t bathed in weeks. Belle greets the officer with a smile, but before she can attempt to charm him, he seizes her by the arm,  and informs Belle that she is under arrest for espionage and will be escorted directly to Washington DC. 

Belle struggles to break free from the officer’s grasp, but his grip is tight, and he manages to get her outside and into a waiting carriage. 

The officer then slams the carriage door shut and directs the driver to take Belle to the Capitol Prison. 

Belle Boyd was only 17 years old when the American Civil War began, but soon became one of the Confederacy’s most accomplished spies. She was as committed to secession and to preserving slavery as any man who fought on the battlefield. And in her work, she funneled key intelligence to rebel commanders and evaded all attempts to catch her, until her espionage career was finally brought to an end on July 29th, 1862.

Introduction 

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world. 

Today is July 29th 1862: Confederate Spy Belle Boyd is Captured.

Act One

It’s July 4th 1861, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, one year before Belle Boyd is arrested for espionage. 

Belle walks the dirt streets of Martinsburg on Independence Day morning. It’s only three months into the American Civil War, but her hometown has already been taken over by the Union. The Stars and Stripes hang from every balcony, and the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy whistles through open windows.

To Belle, though, these sights and sounds of July 4th are repulsive. She was raised to believe in white supremacy, and she curses her fellow townspeople for cooperating with what Belle sees as a foreign occupation. But Belle is just a teenage girl and can't run off and volunteer for the Confederate army like the men in her family have done. So she’s desperate to find another way to help the South. And her determination to assist the rebel cause is only about to grow.

Arriving home that Independence Day, Belle finds her front door open, and the sound of raised voices coming from inside. A group of Union soldiers are arguing with her mother. At once, Belle marches forward into the drawing room and fearlessly demands that the men explain their presence in her home. But the soldiers only laugh and then ignore Belle entirely. It’s Belle’s maid who then pulls her aside to explain that the Union soldiers heard that Belle’s family had Confederate flags hanging on the walls. And in fact, it was Belle’s own bedroom which was decorated floor to ceiling with the Stars and Bars - but her nurse hid them just before the soldiers arrived. So the Union men are disappointed not to find anything incriminating, but all the same, they tell Belle’s mother that they plan to climb onto the roof and mount an enormous American flag on top of the house. 

In response, Belle’s mother tells the soldiers they will have to kill her first. Hearing this, one soldier leans in and aggressively swears. Belle is enraged at the disrespect shown to her mother. And before she knows what she’s doing, she’s reached into her pocket and pulled out a small single shot pistol her mother gave her for self-defense. She pulls the trigger shooting the soldier at point-blank range. He falls to the floor, mortally wounded. The other Union men panic and rush outside.

For the moment, it seems Belle has chased them off. But then Belle’s maid runs from the window warning that the Union soldiers are now piling wood and broken furniture around the house, planning to to burn it down. 

Hitching up her dress, Belle runs out of the house, dodging past the soldiers, and heads straight for the nearby Union headquarters. There, she finds the unit’s captain and pleads with him to call off his men. Moved by Belle’s desperation, the captain agrees to accompany her back to her home.

Then arriving at the chaotic scene, the captain stops his men from starting any fires and decides to investigate the shooting. After hearing all sides, he rules that Belle’s actions were justified. He doesn’t take things any further. But fearing more violence, he posts round-the-clock guards to watch the family’s home, effectively putting Belle under house arrest.

News of the shooting spreads immediately through Martinsburg. Soon everyone is talking about the teenage girl who killed a Union soldier and got away with it. Her legend spreads so far that a group of Confederate soldiers outside the city briefly considers a death-or-glory raid to rescue her. But Belle doesn’t need rescuing. And she isn’t satisfied with her status as a local hero. She wants to do more to help the Confederacy. So, she begins working her way into the affections of the ordinary soldiers tasked with guarding her. She asks them their names and about their hometowns, their wives, and children. And even though the Union men know Belle is a passionate Confederate and a murderer, they find it impossible to view this innocent-looking teenage girl as a real threat. So soon, even higher-ranking Union officers begin to speak freely about their personal lives and military strategy in front of her. 

It will be months before any of these soldiers suspect Belle Boyd’s real intention in winning their trust. Because when the chance comes, she will smuggle the information she’s learned out to rebel forces waiting beyond the city. And this will be only the beginning of her career as one of the most feared and effective spies of the American Civil War.   

Act Two

It’s early May 1862, in Front Royal, Virginia, 10 months after Belle Boyd started her career as a Confederate spy. 

Belle has traveled from her hometown of Martinsburg 40 miles south into Virginia. She’s pretending to be visiting her aunt. But in reality, she is in Front Royal to gather information from the Union officers who are using her aunt’s lavish mansion as a base of operations.   

In the past year, Belle has transformed herself from a powerless teenage girl into a seasoned Confederate spy. Her covert activities started small. At first, she restricted herself to smuggling notes about Union scouting parties out to Confederate troops in the hills around her hometown. Belle’s method was simple. She earned the trust of the Union soldiers around her by flirting with them and making friends, and in time they began to discuss official business in front of her. She wrote down all their plans and hid notes inside hollowed out books, which she then passed to rebel scouts outside town via her maid. With the aid of Belle’s intelligence, the Confederate troops outside Martinsburg were able to evade Union forces and maintain their positions. Within a few months, the Confederates gathered enough strength around the city to take Martinsburg back from the Union. 

Now, though, Belle is on a far more dangerous mission. Sitting in her Aunt’s mansion in Front Royal, she’s surrounded by senior Union officers. They’re led by General James Shields, a ruthless Irishman who commands the Second Division of the Army of the Potomac. 

Belle tries her old trick of appearing innocent and naive as General Shields addresses his staff in the parlor. They are discussing the problem of defeating the Confederate General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, whose army prowls the region outside Front Royal. Jackson is a fearless and brilliant tactician. He earned his nickname at the Battle of Bull Run, the first major clash of the civil war. And his refusal to retreat in that battle resulted in an improbable Confederate victory. Since then, Jackson has remained undefeated, and his success is seen as an embarrassment to the better trained and better equipped Union Army. So General Shields wants to be the first general to best Jackson on the battlefield. 

The evening grows late, and eventually Belle declares she must retire to her room. Everyone thinks she’s going off to bed. But once upstairs, she positions herself over a small hole in the wooden floor above the parlor. Through the hole, she can hear General Shields strategizing with his men. The officers plan until the early hours, considering all the ways in which Stonewall Jackson might try to thwart them. Belle dutifully scribbles down every word they say, and, when the Union men finally go to sleep, Belle slips out of her room and creeps silently through the dark house, past dozing guards, and out and into the stables.

Then she takes a horse and rides furiously into the woods beyond Front Royal. There, she meets with Stonewall Jackson’s scouts and tells them what she’s heard. By dawn, she’s slipped back into her aunt’s house unnoticed. General Shields wakes soon afterward, but he has no idea that all his plans have been betrayed to the enemy. So when he marches south with his army to confront Stonewall Jackson, the Confederates are nowhere to be found.

General Shields and his men search for Stonewall Jackson for weeks without luck until, on May 23rd, 1862, Jackson’s forces launch their own surprise attack on Front Royal. 

Belle’s father is among the Confederate troops who besiege the town, so Belle is especially determined to help. Watching from her aunt’s mansion, she notices that the defending Union troops are making preparations to destroy several critical bridges in the city. The Confederates will need them to take the town. So, Belle sprints onto the battlefield, and races to reach rebel lines. Bullets fly all around her, and some even pierce her dress, but somehow Belle gets through unharmed. She delivers her warning to General Jackson who immediately directs his men to secure the bridges before the Union soldiers can burn them down. Then with the crossings safe, soon afterward, the Confederate army takes the town. 

This will prove to be Belle’s greatest accomplishment as a spy - and one of her last. Two months later, Belle will be captured, betrayed by a man she thought she could trust. And her arrest will end a daring career in espionage brought to a close by another spy. 

Act Three

It’s late July 1862, in Front Royal, Virginia, almost two months after Belle Boyd helped Confederate forces seize the city.

Charles Smitley pauses outside a grand mansion and checks the address he’s written down on a piece of paper. Then assured that this is the right place, he smoothes out his coat and straightens his back, before marching down the driveway toward the front door.

Charles is a Union Army scout. But he’s not here to check on enemy positions or work out the best plan of attack. He’s on a mission to catch a spy.

Front Royal is back in the control of the Union. A pincer movement by three different Union armies has forced the Confederate General Stonewall Jackson to abandon his position in the city. Many Confederate sympathizers have been left behind though. And among them is an 18-year-old woman named Belle Boyd.

By now, Belle’s espionage work has made her famous. The Union Army in Front Royal has her under surveillance - and any hint that she’s still working as a spy will see her arrested and put on trial.

But outwardly, Belle seems to be complying. Still the Union commanders in Front Royal suspect that Belle is still engaged in espionage for the Confederacy. They just need proof. And that is why Charles Smitley is here.

Posing as a Confederate sympathizer, Charles has contrived a meeting with Belle. She is used to exploiting her charm to learn information and get people to do what she wants. But she doesn’t realize though that this time she is the mark.

Over afternoon tea, Charles works his way into Belle’s confidence. When he tells her that he has a pass from the Union authorities allowing him to travel further south, she begs him to take a letter for her. It contains intelligence she's picked up about Union activities in Front Royal and she wants Charles to take it to the Confederate leaders.

Charles agrees, but as soon as he leaves Belle that afternoon, he takes the letter straight to his commanding officers. It’s all the proof they need. A few days later, Union soldiers are knocking on Belle’s door and taking her into custody.

Belle is handed a long prison sentence for espionage. But she doesn’t serve it. Belle contracts typhoid fever in prison and is given a compassionate release. Upon gaining her freedom, Belle vows never to aid the Confederacy again and departs America for England. There, she will fall in love and marry, but her husband will die young, and, after the end of the Civil War, Belle will return to America.

Back home, Belle will support herself by becoming an actress, writing a memoir, and traveling the country retelling her exploits as a wartime spy. She will also remain a bitter secessionist to the end, and never acknowledge the defeat of the Confederacy. But she will be remembered by both sides as a skillful player in the conflict, an innocent-looking girl who fearlessly joined America’s most vicious war until she was finally captured on July 29th, 1862. 

Outro

Next on History Daily. July 30th, 1966. England defeats West Germany to lift the World Cup in the country where soccer originated.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack. 

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Long.

Edited by Dorian Merina.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.