The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

Virgil Caine is my name and I served on the Danville train,

Till so much cavalry came and they tore up the tracks again

In the winter of sixty-five, we were hungry, just barely alive

By May the tenth, Richmond had fell - it's a time I remember oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down, and all the bells were ringing

The night they drove old Dixie down, and the people were singing

They went "La, la, la-la, la, La, la, la-la, la-la, la-la, la"

Back with my wife in Tennesee, when one day she called to me

"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes the Robert E. Lee."

Now I don't mind choppin' wood, and I don't care if the money's no good.

Take what you need and leave the rest,

But they should never have taken the very best."

(Chorus)

Like my father before me, I'm a working man

Like my brother before me, I took a rebel stand

He was just eighteen, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave

I swear by the blood below my feet

You can't raise the cane back up when it's in the feed

(Chorus)