Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Jeff's last shift.

Union troops captured the former president of the Confederacy in May 1865. Whether Davis, who had eluded arrest for over a month, was actually wearing his wife's dress when he was caught is open to question. Nonetheless, the depiction of captured Davis in woman's clothes was featured in many illustrations and cartoons in the northern press. Images such as this Currier & Ives print, like earlier pictures of southern women sending their men to war and rioting, questioned the South's claims of courage and chivalry by showing its men and women reversing traditional sex roles.Union troops captured the former president of the Confederacy in May 1865. Whether Davis, who had eluded arrest for over a month, was actually wearing his wife's dress when he was caught is open to question. Nonetheless, the depiction of captured Davis in woman's clothes was featured in many illustrations and cartoons in the northern press. Images such as this Currier & Ives print, like earlier pictures of southern women sending their men to war and rioting, questioned the South's claims of courage and chivalry by showing its men and women reversing traditional sex roles.

Creator: Joseph E. Baker

Source: American Antiquarian Society

Publisher: Boston: Bufford's Print Publishing House

Date: 1865