Famous Female Spies -- Under the Picture Of Belle Boyd's Beauty

The walls of my one time Washingtonian home were literally lined with book shelves. I was always real sure that the original builder of that home in the 1780s would have been appalled at their volume, making every available space more a library than a home. The house cried for it's former beauty, of that I am sure.

We sat in the dining room, a room large enough to entertain at least fifty people at a table set for nine, leaving empty chairs for another eleven. There was a pause in conversation longer than an overdue date for a pregnant mother.

None of us knew how to deal with the embarrassing fact that Werner had fallen asleep once again. In his typical fashion, his face was now down on his plate and loudly snoring. His guest, Helen, was momentarily speechless, while my teen-aged boys cracked uncomfortable jokes and their sisters giggled eternally.

The widow Helen, the former wife of an important military General, with all the grace and training of her station in life, recovered herself and fixated on one particular shelf of books that housed my collection of Harnett T. Kane 1st edition autographed books.

"I see you are perhaps a Southerner, at least at heart," she said quietly to me, all-the-while still staring at Werner, whose hand now rested in the butter dish.

I managed to reply a meek, "I'm a great admirer of the author, a native of New Orleans. Are you familiar with Mr. Kane?"

"Oh yes. I've met the journalist many times when visiting New Orleans. I think I liked best his book Louisiana Hayride on the Huey Long era scandals. I see that you probably have all thirty-three of his books, both fiction and non-fiction." What is your attraction to his work?"

I would and could have told her that my admiration was his thoroughness in researching his subjects. Just with his book, Lady of Arlington, he worked for four years, traveling about the country, staying at places in which the Robert E. Lee family had lived, studying thousands of letters and documents. Much of the material he uncovered had never before appeared in print.

Yet, we never got around to finishing that conversation because Werner woke himself up with a loud snort, apparently breathing in the more food than air which prompted a coughing fit. So much for the refined dinner with a Washington socialite he was trying to impress. The widow Helen never did again agree to go out with him.

However, before she left she dropped a bomb shell of a statement over dessert to my then husband, by deliberately letting him know that while he may have been an important physicist to the rest of the world, she clearly believed he worked for the CIA as a spy.

Was that true? I don't know to this day. He was secretive and he was eccentric. All I know, is that after she left he was unusually quiet, threw up, and suddenly had to go away on a previously unannounced business trip very early the next morning.

Remembering that evening that took place in what seems like many life times ago, I thought it might be fun to talk about a subject Harnett T. Kane knew a lot about:

The Famous Lady Spies For The Blue And Gray

These lady spies changed the course of battles on both sides. They infiltrated close to the highest levels of the Union and Confederacy alike. They bought, cajoled, stole, and seduced for their cause. They worked cunningly from inside. They strode boldly in from without, snagging military secrets, and plans of strategy, and vital projects.

Some of the lady spies were brilliant, and lustrous. Yet, they were also quite human. Of the ladies, they included several Washington hostesses who charmed Cabinet secrets out of lovesick admirers. There were actresses who traipsed over the landscape, bewitching every colonel and captain in sight.

Then, there was the Quaker schoolteacher of Virginia who slipped military information to a Union commander and then went right on with the important business of teaching her students.

Now, you wouldn't think it, but one of the things that was unique about the Civil War (which was actually during the time, called the Great Rebellion) -- is that it had more espionage, involved more people, on an organized level -- than any other war known to history.

Everyone was spying on everyone else -- as loyalties and sentiments ran deep -- win or lose everyone understood that their world was about to change dramatically -- forever. It sort of reminds about the times we live in today -- where life as we know it is being altered in lightening speed and it ways we can't even begin to imagine.

Under the picture of their beauty as women, these ladies flew under the radar of the men in their time in terms of the very real threats they commanded in obtaining secrets and knowledge that would get passed on to the enemy.

Chances are if you've ever heard of a famous lady spy during the American Civil War, it was the glamorous Belle Boyd. Most of the other sisters-in-espionage of the time were in their fifties and fanatics, but not Belle.

She was a mere teenager when her career as a spy began. Said-to-be beautiful, bright-spirited, witty, daring, and so poised, it's been said that she possessed such nerve under fire, that it was enough to make generals wilt in their beards.

Her first act as a Confederate heroine was when she shot a Yankee soldier who was trying to raise the Union flag over her family's house in Martinsburg, West Virginia (then Virginia). The town was crawling with Yankee soldiers. When the town became too hot for her spy-wise, she moved to Front Royal and started spying for Stonewall Jackson.

Later captured by the Northerners, she charmed her way out of captivity and returned through the lines armed with a number of juicy military secrets.

Apparently, we all have our weaknesses, and Bell Boyd was no exception. Her undoing as a spy was making the mistake in falling in love temporarily) was a Yankee officer. Her full life story was filled with high suspense, unexpected twists, humor, and romance -- and secrets that were every bit deadly as bullets.

After the Civil War, her life was just as adventure filled and the young lady all grown up lived the life of an actress, wife, and mother until her dying day in 1900 when it was reported she died with two pistols under her pillow.

Long before I ever read Harnett T. Kane's, The Smiling Rebel, a fact based novel about Belle Boyd, I had heard many stories about this clever young woman. Today, you can visit the Belle Boyd cottage in Front Royal, Virginia to get a glimpse into her exciting life. You can also visit the Belle Boyd House in Martinsburg, West Virginia.

Affectionately nicknamed "Wild Rose" Rose O'Neal Greenhow, is certainly one woman from the pages of history that I would have like to have met. So much mystery and myth surround this one woman Civil War spy. On my lunch hour one day, I stood in front of her narrow brick house on fashionable Sixteenth Street, a few blocks from the White House. Certainly, her Washingtonian home was a quiet almost non-descript bode, yet the woman herself was anything but quiet and discreet.

During the Civil War, I have no doubt that gossip tongues had to have been wagging at the sheer number of men visiting her home. She was a widow at that time and entertained lavishly. Her historical escapades as a Civil War spy would be too lengthy to list, but towards the end -- I thought this little fact to be quite interesting.

After she was captured on January 18, 1862, she was transferred to the Old Capitol Prison. Her eight year old daughter (Little Rose) was allowed to be with her while imprisoned. She boldly sent a message outside the prison in a female woman visitor's hair bun.

Now, there was a creative woman! So popular, they only held her prisoner for a mere nine months before she was released and travelled about as a heroine broad, even visiting with Napoleon III and Queen Victoria.

Soon afterwards, she was back to her spying activities and started home on a British blockade runner, the Condor which was run aground by a Union gunboat near Wilmington, North Carolina.

The ever resourceful Mrs. Greenhow attempted to flee capture by rowboat but sadly lost her life when the rowboat capsized. Due to the fact that she was carrying upon her person over $2,000 in gold intended for the Confederate treasury, she drowned.

Later, found on her body was her book, "Imprisonment." Inscribed on the inside cover was a little note to her youngest daughter, Little Rose -- it read:

"London, Nov 1st 1863 You have shared the hardships and indignity of my prison life, my darling; And suffered all that evil which a vulgar despotism could inflict. Let the memory of that period never pass from your mind; Else you may be inclined to forget how merciful Providence has been in seizing us from such a people."

Rose O'neil Greenhow would be buried with full military honors in a casket draped in the Confederate flag.

Back in the 1950s, Harnett T. Kane was one of the best known of modern Southern writers. He was often described as "a magnificent storyteller," or a "genial Scots-Irishman," or "a man of many friends around the world."

Many of his books were best sellers and won wide critical acclaim. Mr. Kane was a native of New Orleans and a life-long resident of the South. He often wrote travel articles and book reviews for The New York Times. He also wrote for Reader's Digest, National Geographic, and Saturday Review.

Maybe because he was a journalist first, in a time when journalists were exceptionally thorough in their research, that he was able to turn facts into fascinating stories. If you are lucky enough, you can sometimes find old hardback copies of his books being sold on the Internet.

He died on September 14, 1984 in his beloved New Orleans. It was particularly sad that this fine old gentleman of the South, spent his last seventeen years of life a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

Now, Mary Custis, wife of General Robert E. Lee, wasn't exactly a lady spy, but she played her own very important role in the Civil War and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as women who contributed much in a time of war.

She was an heiress of the magnificent Arlington estate on the Potomac, when she decided to accept a handsome, dark-haired young second lieutenant named Robert Lee's hand in marriage -- against her father's wishes.

Naturally, her dad wasn't impressed, the young officer had little means of support, no estate, and some thought, no great career ahead of him. Then, there was that nasty little shadow of tragedy that surrounded his family name.

Yet, Mary never wavered in her faith in this man. He was offered the breath-taking offer to be the head of the Army of the United States, and turned it down. Instead, as we all know he became the General of the South's Virginia's forces in the Confederate Army. That didn't turn out as a winning move war wise, but in the end he was known as one of America's greatest of all soldiers.

I think she needs to be included in any discussion of women who played important roles in the Civil War, as this grand lady was there, not only throughout the bleak days of the war, but because she was also there when her husband rode slowly back from Appomattox to begin a new life on the wreck of the old. It was in those postwar years that the two of them met their greatest test and passed it magnificently.