Harper's Weekly: A Journal of Civilization

On May 24, Col. Pritchard of the Fourth Michigan Cavalry ordered Varina Davis to give him the raglan and shawl Davis had been wearing at the time of his capture. She complied, but later reported that soldiers shot open one of her trunks and removed a hoopskirt. All of these items were sent to U.S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who understood that the rumors of Davis’ escape in a dress were false but did nothing to stop them. The evidence remained at the War Department until 1961.
Harper’s Weekly, the highest circulating illustrated newspaper in America during the Civil War, was less sensational than Frank Leslie’s. Although the text is a bit melodramatic—“There is no longer any doubt about Davis having been disguised in woman’s clothes at the time of his capture”—the accompanying illustration is more truthful than any of the cartes de visite or prints. The drawing supposedly illustrates “The Clothes in Which Davis Disguised Himself (From a Photograph at the War Department by Alexander Gardner),” even though a hoopskirt peeks out from under the hem of the raglan. Note the water pail in the foreground.