The Ann Fulmore Harllee Chapter of the UDC met September 8, 2016 at the home of Mary Mac Stephens. Mrs. Mattie Strickland opened the meeting with prayer, after which everyone enjoyed a dessert course of cheese cake, cheese wafers and grapes.
Chris Harris
The meeting was called to order by Mrs. Strickland who led the members in the club ritual which was closed with prayer by Mrs. Phyllis Hagan. The minutes were read and approved. Mrs. Fay Sloan gave a treasurer’s report, and she reminded everyone that dues for the year 2016-2017 are now due. The members voted to send a contribution of $50.00 to the flood victims in Louisiana. Mrs. Strickland reminded everyone that our chapter will host the district meeting in Dillon in February 2017. The program for the afternoon was given by Chris Harris who presented some interesting and astonishing information about the Confederate spy, Belle Boyd who has been referred to as “La Belle Rebelle”, “the Rebel Joan of Arc”, the Siren of the Shenandoah”, and the “Cleopatra of the Secession”.
Belle Boyd was born in 1844 in Martinsburg, Virginia (now West Virginia) to a well-to-do family. From age 12-16 she studies at Baltimore’s Mount Washington Female Seminary and was presented to Washington society. After the War Between the States started, she returned home.
In 1861, Federal troops occupied Martinsburg at which time the Federal soldiers tried to put a Union flag on the Boyd house. As one of the soldiers pushed Belle and her mother out of the way, Belle drew her pistol and shot and killed the man. She was exonerated. With this act, Belle’s career as a spy was underway. She was 17 years old.
Evidently, Belle used her feminine charms to get information from the Yankee officers. It was said that on one occasion, she ran across a battle field amid flying bullets to get vial information to General Stonewall Jackson. Belle was in and out of prison several times but continued to work for the Confederacy while incarcerated. In 1864, under the alias Mrs. Lewis, Belle boarded a blockade runner in order to carry important information and gold to the Confederate Agency in England. The blockade runner was captured by Union troops and Belle met Naval Ensign Sam Hardinge whom she later married in England and they had one child. While in England, Belle was a successful stage performer, lecturing on her wartime experiences. She also started writing her memoirs. In 1866 she had become a widow, and she and her child returned to the states. After returning to the states, Belle was in need of money, so she resumed her work in the theater. It was reported that she lived in Tampa, Florida for several years, where she met and married John Hammond, whom she divorced 15 years later. From this divorce she received a good settlement and custody of their four children.
UDC
Her third marriage was to an actor named Nathaniel High. With High’s background in acting, Belle decided once again to draw on her war experiences for their livelihood, and she continued to lecture for 14 years. In 1900, Belle and her husband and granddaughter were in Wisconsin where a performance was scheduled. Belle became ill and died of an apparent heart attack at age 56. She was buried in what is now Spring Grove Cemetery in a burial plot which cost five dollars. Throughout the years different groups tended the gravesite and in 1976 a marker was erected and the Belle Boyd Gravesite Memorial was dedicated. In honor of this unusual and enterprising daughter of the South, the Belle Boyd Chapter 2687 of the UDC was chartered in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin on August 17, 2010. It is obvious, she will long be remembered for her contributions and loyalty to the Confederate cause.
At the conclusion to the program, the meeting was adjourned.
