Note D — PRISON LIFE IN THE OLD CAPITOL

Belle Boyd had a most remarkable career. Her life story, with the account of her daring exploits, is more like romance than reality. She was born in Martinsburg, Va., in May, 1843, and was little more than a school girl when the war broke out. Her father, John Read Boyd, was an officer in the Confederate army. The act which first brought her into notice was the shooting by her of a Federal soldier who assailed her mother—she seized her father’s pistol and shot him dead. She then threw all her energy into the struggle. On information furnished by her, Stonewall Jackson drove Banks out of the Shenandoah Valley, for which service Jackson sent a special dispatch thanking her. Her daring led to her capture and imprisonment in the Old Capitol for three months. She was then exchanged for Colonel Corcoran, of the 69th New York Regiment. She went South, was commissioned as Captain in the Confederate army, and served as courier and in the Secret Service.

After the battle of Gettysburg she went home, was arrested and sent to Carroll Prison, Washington, D. C., where she was confined for seven months, and sentenced to be shot, but through the efforts of influential parties she was exchanged for General Nathan Goff, of West Virginia. She afterward sailed from Wilmington, N. C., in the steamer Greyhound, with important dispatches for England, but after a chase the steamer was captured by the Federal cruiser Connecticut, and Belle was brought back, court-martialed in Boston, and again sentenced to be shot. Her sentence was afterward commuted, and she was escorted to the Canadian border by a deputy marshal, with the understanding that if she ever returned to the United States she would be put to death.

She died in Kilbourn, Wis., in June, 1890.

Superintendent Wood, of the Old Capitol Prison, is reported as saying of her: “Her face was not what would be called pretty—her features indicated firmness and daring, but her figure was perfect, and a splendid specimen of feminine health and vigor. She was a good talker, very persuasive, and the most persistent and enthusiastic Rebel who ever came under my charge. Her father sent her, from time to time, large sums of money, most of which was expended for the comfort of the Confederate prisoners in the Old Capitol.”