From the Collection: CARTOONS OF THE CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS
From the Collection: CARTOONS OF THE CAPTURE OF JEFFERSON DAVIS
By Jane Gastineau
Former Lincoln Librarian, Allen County Public Library
On May 10, 1865, Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his wife Varina were captured by soldiers of the 4th Michigan Cavalry near Irwinville, Georgia. It was widely reported that Davis was wearing Varina’s coat or shawl over his shoulders during his attempt to flee, and that report soon blossomed into the claim that Davis had tried to escape disguised as a woman. Northern cartoonists and the press went wild. Within days, images of Davis in a dress were everywhere, despite the allegation being untrue.
Some cartoons depict Varina interceding for her husband at the entrance to their tent. One shows the two standing side by side in dresses. In another, Varina, dressed only in her camisole and petticoat, faces the soldiers while Davis, who is presumably wearing her dress, peers over her head from the darkness of the tent.
Many of the cartoons show Davis running away wearing his boots and spurs under a dress and wielding a long knife. Varina, meanwhile, fends off Union soldiers with the threat “Don’t provoke the President, or he may hurt some of you!” The image even made it into popular music—for example, Jeff in Petticoats: A Song for the Times.
