LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 December Civil War Auction #674  / 

72075

BELLE BOYD, CONFEDERATE SPY, NEGATIVE

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:1,450.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
BELLE BOYD, CONFEDERATE SPY, NEGATIVE
<B>BELLE BOYD, CONFEDERATE SPY (1843-1900): PHOTOGRAPHIC NEGATIVE.</B></I> One of the most famous and notorious of Confederate spies, Belle Boyd became an espionage agent at the age of seventeen, serving the Confederate forces in the Shenandoah Valley, operating her spying operations from her father’s hotel in Front Royal, Virginia. During the spring 1862 Valley Campaign she became a courier and provided valuable information to Generals Turner Ashby and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson. A bold and daring young woman, Belle, at times, galloped headlong into the dark with cipher messages and even crept into rooms to eavesdrop on Union Army conferences. General Jackson made her a captain and honorary <I>aide-de-camp</B></I> on his staff. After being betrayed by her lover, she was arrested on July 29, 1862, and spent a month in the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. Exchanged a month later, she was in exile with relatives for a time but was again arrested in June 1863 while on a visit to her birthplace, Martinsburg, now West Virginia. On December 1, 1863, she was released, suffering from typhoid, and went to Europe to regain her health. While in England, Belle had a stage career and published <I>Belle Boyd in Camp and Prison</B></I>. She died while touring the western United States. Louis A. Sigaud, <I>Belle Boyd, Confederate Spy</B></I>, and Ruth Scarborough, <I>Belle Boyd-Siren of the South</B></I> .<BR> <BR>Wet-plate glass negative, size 2.5" x 3.75" - format for a <I>carte de visite </B></I>photograph. Taken at Brady’s Washington, D.C. Gallery, circa mid 1860s. Negative secured between protective glass covers and held in an archival frame, 11" x 12.5"..<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Framed - with Glass, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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