Was Jefferson Davis dressed in womens clothes?

Answer 1

No - although there was a newspaper report at the time that suggested that he was.

Northern papers said:

"The firing in this skirmish was the first warning that Davis received. The captors report that he hastily put on one of his wife's dresses and started for the woods, closely followed by our men, who at first thought him a woman, but seeing his boots while he was running, they suspected his sex at once."

- Harpers Weekly, May 27, 1865

This led to the persistent rumor that he attempted to flee in women's clothes, inspiring caricatures that portrayed him as such.

This newspaper article should be viewed through a lens of doubt since it was wartime reporting on a bitter enemy - and such a portrayal may well have been designed to sell more papers by appealing the desire of the readers to ridicule the losing side.

A more accurate and documented account is that at the time the Union soldiers approached Davis' camp, he was wearing grey trousers and coat. He had on riding boots and spurs. Davis' wife, Varina, said about the event at a later date, "I pleaded with him to let me throw over him a large waterproof which had often served him in sickness during the summer as a dressing gown, and which I hoped might so cover his person that in the grey of the morning he would not be recognized. As he strode off I threw over his head a little black shawl which was round my own shoulders, seeing that he could not find his hat..."

- From Varina Banks Howell Davis to Francis Preston Blair, Savannah, Ga., June 6, 1865. In Blair, Gist. Annals of Silver Spring, Records of the Columbia Historical Society,Washington, D.C., Vol. 21 (1918), pp. 155-185

A waterproof is a man's overcoat. Varina may have thrown her shawl over his head, but Jefferson was leaving his tent to talk to Colonel Pritchard (the officer commanding the forces that captured Davis) not run away.

Colonel B. D. Pritchard said that their action was so swift that the Davis party had no time to take any action. The soldiers surrounded Jefferson Davis's tent. Davis came out and said to Pritchard, "I suppose you consider it bravery to charge a train of defenseless women and children." Colonel Pritchard contradicted the story that Davis was running away and wearing a dress.