Belle Boyd (
1843-
1900), born in Martinsburg, Virginia, was a
Confederate spy in the
American Civil War. She operated from her fathers hotel in
Front Royal, and provieded valuable information to Generals
Turner Ashby and
Stonewall Jackson during the 1862 campaign in the Valley. She was arrested on July 29, 1862, and held for a month in the
Old Capitol Prison in
Washington. In 1864 she went to England where she met and married a Union naval officer. She was awarded the
Southern Cross of Honor. After the war Belle Boyd became an actress.
