Belle Boyd

Isabella Maria Boyd , best known as Belle Boyd,as well as Cleopatra of the Secession and Siren of the Shenandoah, was a Confederate spy in the American Civil War. She operated from her fathers hotel in Front Royal, Virginia, and provided valuable information to Confederate General Stonewall Jackson in 1862.

Belle Boyd was born on May 9, 1844, in Martinsburg, Virginia . She was the eldest child of Benjamin Reed and Mary Rebecca Boyd. Boyd would describe her childhood as idyllic, living a carefree life of a reckless tomboy who climbed trees, raced through the woods, and dominated brothers, sisters, and cousins. Despite her familys lack of money, Boyd received a good education. After some preliminary schooling, she attended the Mount Washington Female College at Baltimore, Maryland beginning in Mount Washington Female College was chartered on March 10, 1856 and first admitted students that May.

Source: Wikipedia