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Belle Boyd

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Excerpt about Belle Boyd, from West Virginia: A Film History (0:52)

Narrator: Both sides recruited women as spies.

In Martinsburg, Belle Boyd claimed she obtained information from Union officers in the privacy of her bedroom. The Confederate officers said Boyd could charm the heart out of a monk and cause him to break his vows of celibacy. Boyd was arrested seven times, each time boasting of her deeds and delighting in the public outrage.

"Belle Boyd was taken prisoner and sent off in a carriage with an escort of 50 cavalrymen today. I hope she has succeeded in making herself proficiently notorious now." —Lucy Buck

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  • Company: West Virginia Humanities Council
  • Filmmaker: Mark Samels
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