Belle Of The Ball -- And A Spy! Quiz

Answer: Shenandoah Valley

The Shenandoah Valley is in western Virginia and lies between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge mountains. During the American Civil War, it was very important as a key strategic location as it gave the Union a route into the Confederate capital and served the Confederacy as both a barrier and a source of rich farming. Belle Boyd's family, with strong Southern ties, was considered affluent and lived at an edge of the Shenandoah Valley.

Answer: Shot him dead

Women in the Virginia area had been warned of "Yankee outrages" against women from the soldiers now occupying many cities. Belle carried a Colt 1849 pistol hidden in her skirts. When the leader of the group of soldiers in her house touched her mother's arms, Belle shot the man.

Then the seventeen year old girl turned to the others, dropped her weapon, and said that "only those who are cowards shoot women". After several interviews, the case was considered closed and Belle simply had to endure soldiers keeping a close watch on the house.

Answer: Crow

Belle utilized a variety of methods to pass messages to the Confederate lines. Often she would pretend to flirt with Union staff or entertain Union soldiers with her pet crow who could say the words "Miss Belle". The information she gathered from eavesdropping was then orally passed along or given to her maid to transport. Written ciphers were hidden in her shoe soles or inside dolls' heads.

She even had a custom "skin" for her dog and would affix a message to the dog and slip the skin over it before heading out to a rendezvous.

Answer: Weapons

Belle and her network would wear steel coils under their large hoop skirts and would gather up unattended pistols and sabers. They then hid them in their clothes and deposited them in various caches around the area where later they would be sent to the Confederate troops. One day the 28th Pennsylvania Regiment stumbled upon a stash of 200 sabers, 400 pistols, and 1,400 muskets awaiting transfer!

Answer: Quinine

Malaria, a disease caused by parasites spread through the bites of infected mosquitos, was responsible for a large percentage of illnesses and deaths in the American Civil War. Quinine, made from a bark in the Caribbean and Central America areas, was delivered on ships to the Union to help infected soldiers. Blockade runners also managed to get some to the Confederacy. Belle, and some of her network, would smuggle quinine across the Potomac River late at night and deliver it to the waiting parties.

Answer: Stonewall

Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson earned his nickname when he stood resolutely in the line of fire at the First Battle of Manassas. Jackson was a key general under Robert E. Lee and fought many skirmishes in the Shenandoah Valley, near Belle's family home.

At one point, after having eavesdropped on Union troop movements, she literally ran through bullets to deliver the vital information to Jackson's command. She later received a hand-written thank you note from him detailing her "immense service" the cause.

Answer: Her romantic counterpart was also a spy

Belle was a very outgoing young lady and often used coquettish ways to gain information. During one of her soirees that she hosted, she met a young man who was serving in the Confederacy. She would often be found dining with, or in conversation with, C. Smitley. One evening she asked Smitley to deliver a message concerning Union movement to Confederate General Jackson.

She was horrified to soon find out he was a Union spy. This "romantic betrayal", as she called it, caused her to be sent to Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C.

Answer: Richmond, Virginia

Rose, upon reaching Richmond, was serenaded by the city band and greeted visitors in a local hotel alongside another female Rebel spy named Rose Greenhow. Belle spent time caring for Confederate soldiers in some of the hospitals and writing to her family and friends back in Martinsburg.

Her stay ended in Richmond when she received news her father was ill. Violating her parole, she headed home.

Answer: False

Samuel Hardinge was actually a Lieutenant in the Union Army and was one of the men responsible for capturing the ship Belle was on during her first attempt at going to Europe. They fell in love on board the ship and stayed in communication throughout her stay in Canada.

She joined him in England and they were married there in August of 1864. Belle was sure she could convince him to become a Confederate "in his heart".

Answer: Heart attack while on tour

Belle Boyd was widowed while in Europe and wrote a memoir of her espionage days. She also embarked on a stage career where she called herself "Belle Boyd of Virginia". She moved back to the U.S. and married a younger man. That union ended in divorce and Belle found herself deeply in debt.

She continued her shows throughout the Midwest and died of a heart attack during the tour in 1900. She is buried in Wisconsin with a simple marker stating her title of 'Confederate Spy'.