Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy
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New York superior court judge Edwards Pierrepont: Rose was unfamiliar with Pierrepont, and misidentified him in My Imprisonment as “Governor Fairfield.”
“resume your seats”: Rose’s appearance before the commission—including the dialogue, which is reported here verbatim—is based on the Proceedings of the Commission Relating to State Prisoners. Rose’s depiction of the proceedings is remarkably true to the record; My Imprisonment, 269–70.
“I ask of your clemency”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 282.
“in cold blood”: Ibid., 286.
“I had been treated well and kindly”: Ibid., 288.
“knew his plans better than Lincoln”: Ibid., 289.
Another possible reason was that Lincoln: Pinkerton, Spy of the Rebellion, 546–48.
“you will be refused a pass”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 289.
she promised two rebel prisoners: Ibid., 301.
A Slave Called “Ned”
“the nation’s most feared address”: Dunkelman, War’s Relentless Hand, 236.
“engage in so perilous an undertaking”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 106.
phrenological studies on women: Fowler, Fowler’s Practical Phrenology, 32–33.
“largely developed”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 106.
Lafayette C. Baker, the Federal government’s chief detective: Fishel, Secret War for the Union, 25.
A Confederate spy named Benjamin Franklin Stringfellow: Sulick, Spying in America, 68.
One of Pinkerton’s men, Dave Graham: Ibid.
John Burke, a rebel scout: Ibid.
Another Confederate spy, Wat Bowie: Ibid.
plantation-style suit: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 105–6.
“reconnaissance business”: Ibid.
“I found myself without friends”: Ibid., 107.
“Who do you belong to”: This scene is based on Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 112–20.
a third more than even the general had believed: Heidler, Heidler, and Coles, Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, 1732.
The cautious McClellan was always eager to accept: Waugh, Lincoln and McClellan, 91.
including a slave who escaped at the same time: Edge, Major McClellan, 80.
heading northwest toward Williamsburg: Eicher, Longest Night, 182.
“You will be surprised to hear of our departure”: New York Times, May 6, 1862.
“spread throughout the Federal army like lightning”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 122. Lincoln, however, did not view Magruder’s retreat as a victory.
“unequalled excitement”: Robbins, journal.
“our success is brilliant”: McClellan, Civil War Papers, 254.
“leave, not to return”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 123.
tripping and tumbling headlong: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 231.
“There was plenty of work”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 124.
“Colonel, you are not wounded at all”: Ibid., 125.
“mentally regretting that the lead”: Ibid., 126.
“It was his first attempt at carving”: Ibid., 373.
General McClellan calling it “brilliant”: Bonekemper, McClellan and Failure, 68.
Two men lay face-to-face: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 234.
“quite red”: New York Times, June 8, 1862.
“It was indescribably sad”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 127.
Perfectly Insane on the Subject of Men
no “clear evidence of guilt”: Dix, Memoirs, 2:43–44.
“all surface, vain, and hollow”; “captive in the parlor”: Buck, Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven, 18, 34.
“Of all fools I ever saw”: Diary of Kate S. Sperry, Sperry Papers, 74.
“write the boys by me”; “Poor boys!”: Buck, Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven, 74.
Fishback Hotel: Information about the hotel from an e-mail from Judith Pfeiffer, archivist with the Warren Heritage Society, January 2012.
“It is here that some of the most accomplished women”: Philadelphia Inquirer, July 19, 1862.
“disloyal or insane”: Nathaniel Page to Sydney H. Gay, January 27, 1863, Gay Papers.
“He was an Irishman”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 101.
“tender mercies”: Ibid., 102.
“He was completely off his guard”: Ibid.
its vocabulary included: Atlanta Constitution, October 10, 1919.
“looking well and deporting herself”: Strother, Virginia Yankee, 37.
“without being beautiful”: Andrews, North Reports the Civil War, 257.
“closeted four hours”: Page to Gay, January 27, 1863, Gay Papers.
subsequently wrapped a rebel flag: Washington Evening Star, August 4, 1862; Starr, Bohemian Brigade, 100.
“indebted for some very remarkable effusions”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 102.
she shut herself in a closet: I asked Cathy Wright of the American Civil War Museum about the veracity of this scene (specifically Belle’s claim that she hid in a closet) and she replied, “There is a myth that old houses don’t have closets because they were taxed as a room. Actually, closets could be common, although they were not usually found in bedrooms, but rather might be a china closet, linen closet, etc.” Wright, e-mail, November 2011.
General McClellan was advancing toward Richmond: Geary, Politician Goes to War, 43–44.
“so in coming east you will be following him”: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 36.
“various circumstances”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 104.
If she carried a pass from divisional headquarters: Bakeless, Spies of the Confederacy, 157.
dressed in the garb of a boy: Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, 48.
“Who is there?”: The scene between Belle, “Mr. M,” and Turner Ashby is from Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 105–6.
“Who comes there?”: Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, 49.
“Let the boy pass”: Ibid.
The Other Side of the River
McClellan prepared to move his base of operations: New York Times, May 13, 1862.
The river was generally fordable: Cullen, Peninsula Campaign, 51–52.
“which must in that event suffer terribly”: Sears, Young Napoleon, 189.
A contraband who left Richmond: New York Times, May 13, 1862.
The Richmond newspapers quoted Jefferson Davis: New York Times, May 21, 1862.
Allan Pinkerton delivered estimates: Sears, Young Napoleon, 186.
nearly three times its actual strength: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, 98.
“reconnaissances, frequently under fire”: McClellan, Report on the Organization and Campaigns, 157.
“noble steed”: The scene with Emma, the dying soldier, and Major McKee is based on Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 148–70.
die upon the scaffold at Richmond: Ibid., 151.
some officers began to wonder: Detroit News, May 9, 1937.
My Love to All the Dear Boys
“I know you have permission to go”; Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 108.
“Jeff Davis” bonnets: Chase and Lee, Winchester Divided, 35.
“The women are almost universally bitter”: Duncan, Beleaguered Winchester, xviii.
Winchester changed hands almost daily: Holsworth, Civil War Winchester, 95.
the female population never failed to harass the enemy: New York Times, June 5, 1862.
Colonel William Denny of the 31st Virginia Militia Regiment: Louis Sigaud to Harry Lemley, September 26, 1962, Sigaud Papers.
“will you take these letters”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 109.
“repulsive-looking”: The scene between Belle, the Union detective, and Colonel Beal, ibid., 110–16.
“with her usual adroitness”: Washington Evening Star, May 31, 1862.
no citizen was allowed to leave: Buck, Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven, 77.
“buy some pies and pigs”: Ibid.
“Oh, Miss Belle, I t’inks”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 118.
“we are endeavoring to get the ordnance”: Ibid., 119.
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“But what will you do with the stores”: Ibid.
“insult an innocent young girl”: Ibid., 118.
“Great heavens!”: Ibid., 120.
“I’m going to skedaddle”: Coffin, Stories of Our Soldiers, 48.
“No, no. You go!”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 123.
“I shall never run again”: Ibid., 125.
“That was just to my taste”: Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall, 51.
“Good God, Belle, you here!”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 127.
“I knew it must be Stonewall”: Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall, 51. Confederate general Richard Taylor also witnessed Belle’s mad dash across the battlefield: “A moment later, there rushed out of the wood to meet us a young, rather well-looking young woman, afterward widely known as Belle Boyd. Breathless with speed and agitation, some time elapsed before she found her voice. Then, with much volubility, she said we were near Front Royal, beyond the wood; that the town was filled with Federals, whose camp was on the west side of the river, where they had guns in position to cover the wagon bridge, but none bearing on the railway bridge below the former; that they believed Jackson to be west of Massanutten, near Harrisonburg; that General Banks, the Federal commander, was at Winchester, twenty miles northwest of Front Royal, where he was slowly concentrating his widely scattered forces to meet Jackson’s advance, which was expected some days later. All this she told with the precision of a staff officer making a report.” Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction, 51.
“I must hurry back”: Douglas, I Rode with Stonewall, 52.
Belle blew him a kiss: Ibid.
who that “young lady” was: Ibid.
“rosy with excitement and recent exercise”: Ibid.
“Remember, it is blood red”: Ibid.
“Miss Belle Boyd, I thank you”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 133. Belle claims to have lost this paper and others in a house fire after the war.
“All honor to the brave Jackson”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 311.
“My child is so nervous”: Ibid., 303.
“tears of blood”: Ibid., 296.
“dangerous, skillful spy”: OR, ser. 2, 2:271.
One Grain of Manhood
“hell’s artillery”: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, 120.
“Had it not been for McClellan’s faith”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 175.
“silent battles”: Heidler, Heidler, and Coles, Encyclopedia of the American Civil War, 7–8.
Johnston had no idea his men were fighting: Garrison, Civil War Curiosities, 291.
“a little shaking up”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 184.
“not the possessor of one grain”: Dannett, She Rode with the Generals, 149.
within speaking distance of each other: Guernsey and Aiden, Harper’s Pictorial History, 352.
sight of their commander: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 187.
“The ground around that tree”: Ibid., 191.
“Soldiers of the Army of the Potomac!”: Ibid., 187–88.
“I am tired of the sickening sight”: Sears, To the Gates of Richmond, 145.
“most lonely spot”: Fort Scott Monitor, January 17, 1884.
The Madam Looks Much Changed
“The weather was very warm”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“return north of the Potomac”: OR, ser. 2, 2:577.
“rendered historic”; “the monsters”: Richmond Whig, June 6, 1862.
The hotel was the city’s most prestigious: Ludy, Historic Hotels, 248.
Rose ignored these and other pleas: Mortimer, Double Death, 199.
“all was warlike preparation and stern defiance”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 322.
“I belong to the country but my heart”: Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 125.
“charming chamber”; “new matting and pretty curtains”; “General McClellan’s room”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“She must not come handicapped”: Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, 311.
“if there were any Yankees where she was”: Papers of Jefferson Davis, 8:244.
“The Madam looks much changed”: Ibid.
“But for you, there would have been”: Greenhow, My Imprisonment, 322.
“the proudest moment of my whole life”: Ibid.
The Secesh Cleopatra
“camp cyprian”: Philadelphia Inquirer, May 31, 1862.
“Lieutenant Colonel, 5th Virginia Regiment”: Ibid.
“Where do you wish to go?”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 137–38.
“with the utmost good-nature and pleasantry”: Ibid., 138.
“a killing set of whiskers”: Boston Daily Globe, May 28, 1890.
“the sensation of the village”: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 64.
“I suppose you came to report me again”: E. J. Allen, report to Edwin Stanton, June 25, 1862, RG 94, Turner-Baker Papers.
“She gets around considerably”: Ibid.
“I communicate to you a fact”: Washington Duffee to Edwin Stanton, July 30, 1862, Turner-Baker Papers.
“C. W. D. Smitley”: Scene between Belle and Smitley from Reader, History of the 5th West Virginia Cavalry, 257–58; Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 139–43.
“travel the slightest distance”; “These cows have permission to pass”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 111.
The Bright Rush of Life, the Hurry of Death
“decisive step”: Sears, Young Napoleon, 204.
“fit subjects for the hospital”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 203–4.
“behaved splendidly”: McClellan, Civil War Papers, 285.
“I regret my great inferiority”: Sandburg, Lincoln: The War Years, 3:491.
In reality Lee had just eighty thousand men: Gansler, Mysterious Private Thompson, 115.
as many as forty shots per minute: Haydon, For Country, Cause and Leader, 255.
“The excitement on the Mechanicsville Turnpike”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
“I almost begin to think”: Cullen, Peninsula Campaign, 98.
“one of the most difficult undertakings”: McClellan’s Own Story, 412.
“into the hands of the enemy”: Edmonds, Nurse and Spy, 212.
“hour after hour, the enemy advancing”: Ibid., 225.
just six miles downstream: Hall, e-mail, March 2012.
“supremely ridiculous”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.”
forged exemption tickets: Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 88.
Her connection—Mary Jane Bowser’s husband, Wilson: Hall, e-mail, April 2013.
“damned Yankees”: Hall, e-mail, March 2013.
“awful sin”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.” The girls never saw their mother again.
“Keep it all a secret”: Hall, e-mail, May 2013.
“Are any of the prisoners related to you?”: Statement from George D. Harwood, July 27, 1864, RG 109, Records of the Adjutant and Inspector General’s Department, National Archives.
“But it does not say we must visit”: Ibid.
In one far corner: Description of Libby Prison’s hospital in McCreery, My Experience as a Prisoner of War, 15.
“Read the pinpricks”: Hall, e-mail, August 2012.
Wilson Bowser, message hidden in his shoe: Ibid.
Varina a devil: Cashin, First Lady of the Confederacy, 126.
Nevertheless she strolled across the street: Hall, e-mail, June 2013.
“I’m going through the lines”: Van Lew, “Occasional Journal.” Van Lew’s descendant, Bart Hall, believes that Elizabeth’s “muttering” during this scene was the origin of the “Crazy Bet” myth, which is ably discounted in Varon, Southern Lady, Yankee Spy, 253–61.
She Breathes, She Burns
“Miss Belle, de Provo’”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 148.
After her initial trepidation: Belle doesn’t explicitly state that she wished to be mistreated while in the Old Capitol Prison, but her claims that she was mistreated directly contradict other reports of her rather mild—and occasional
ly pleasant—experience behind bars (an experience that sharply contrasted with Rose’s genuinely difficult punishment). Belle told George August Sala, the English journalist who helped her write her memoir, of the “insults, sufferings, and persecutions” she endured while in Union custody, and she herself wrote that her situation was “too painful to admit of real, lasting consolation.” I concluded that Belle did indeed wish to use her prison experience to cement her status as a Confederate heroine. Later, during her second stint in prison, Belle engaged in more blatant cognitive dissonance when she insisted that she “became a celebrity” through “no desire of my own.”
“outrageous persecutions”: Daily Constitutionalist (Augusta, GA), January 9, 1862.
“the best-looking in the Confederacy”: Unidentified clipping, Laura Virginia Hale Archives.
He reminded her of Edgar Allan Poe’s raven: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 157.
“Major Sherman has come to arrest you”: Ibid., 149.
“sorrow and sympathy”: Ibid., 156.
“Belle Boyd was taken prisoner”: Buck, Sad Earth, Sweet Heaven, 124.
“My poor, dear child!”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 168.
In the near distance Belle spotted: Sigaud, Belle Boyd, 72.
Rose’s old cell: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 193.
“And so this is the celebrated”: Ibid., 177.
“many happy hours”: Ibid., 179.
“Ain’t you tired of your prison”: Ibid., 181.
“Sir, if it is a crime to love the South”: Ibid., 182.
“Bravo!”: Ibid., 183.
“She was dressed today”: Washington Star, August 2, 1862.
“I can afford to remain here”: Doster, Lincoln, 102.
“The pathos of her voice”: Mahony, Prisoner of State, 271.
“a lump up in my throat”: Williamson, Prison Life in the Old Capitol, 50.
“I shan’t do it!”: Mahony, Prisoner of State, 275.
stopped at every floor to announce services: Williamson, Prison Life in the Old Capitol, 33–34.
“separate the goats from the sheep”: Boyd, In Camp and Prison, 202.
inscribed “Belle Boyd, Old Capitol Prison”: Sigaud to Judge Harry Lemley, November 9, 1962, Sigaud Papers.