When the first issue of Southern Punch appeared on August 15, 1863, the founder and editor of the Richmond comic weekly, John Wilford Overall, a native of Virginia and a prominent journalist predicted that the periodical "will have the largest circulation of any paper in the South."  He had reason to be optimistic.  Even before the inaugural number was printed by Overall, Campbell, Hughes, and Company, the magazine had received 15,000 orders.  Overall's formula for success was both ambitious and straightforward: publish an American version of the London-based Punch, the most popular and influential satire magazine of the nineteenth century.  Attempting to ride the coattails of the British periodical, the editor declared that Southern Punch is the "legitimate son of that world-renowned 'London Punch.'"

A stalwart supporter of the Confederacy, Overall featured cartoons in Southern Punch that were sharply critical of the Union cause.  Lincoln was cast as a tyrant and a buffoon.  Union soldiers were portrayed as "Yankee raiders."  Receiving the brunt of the attack were runaway slaves who crossed Union lines.  Depicting African Americans performing menial labor for the federal armies, these cartoons questioned whether these individuals enjoyed any freedom at the hands of military officials.

To bolster morale at a time when the Confederacy struggled to survive in the aftermath of the devastating defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, Overall included cartoons in his publication that heralded the Confederate cause.  General Lee was portrayed as a "heroic leader" who inspired men to enlist and fight in the Army of Northern Virginia.  While Confederate soldiers were depicted as noble defenders of the new nation, Overall lambasted men who evaded conscription.

Southern Punch supplemented its cartoons with jokes and anecdotes in addition to war news.  One of the periodical's most provocative features was its coverage of developments on the battlefield and the home front from the vantage point of the Confederate capital.  The Confederacy's saga to win its independence in the war's final two years was well documented in a diverse range of news stories and editorials.

The exigencies of the war paid a heavy toll on Southern Punch.  The August 22, 1864 issue of the periodical was delayed because of a paper shortage.  This production problem coincided with the termination of cartoons as a feature.  Although Overall had announced in the same issue that he was making arrangements to double the size of the periodical from eight pages to sixteen pages so that "it will be the largest weekly in the Confederate States," the editor's ambitious plan was never realized.  In late November Southern Punch cut back to four pages.  By January of 1865, Overall had resigned and the periodical had been sold to another publisher.  Within a matter of months, the publication was suspended.