Natural History

Source

Full disclosure: I descend from several people who drove Dixie down. Remember, I’m from WEST Virginia, not the other one. My great, great, great, great, great grandfather has his service to the union army written on his monument.

Lyrics:

Virgil Caine is the name
and I served on the Danville train
Til Stoneman’s cavalry came
and they tore up the tracks again
In the winter of ’65
we were hungry just barely alive
By May tenth Richmond had fell
It’s a time I remember oh so well

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And the people were singing
They went “La, la, la”

Back with my wife in Tennessee
when one day she called to me
“Virgil quick come see
there go the Robert E.Lee”
Now I don’t mind chopping wood
and I don’t care if the money’s no good
Ya take what ya need and ya leave the rest
But they should never have taken the very best

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went “La, la, la”

Like my father before me
I will work the land
And like my brother up above me
who took a rebel stand
He was just eighteen
proud and brave
but a Yankee laid him in his grave
and I swear by the mud below my feet
You can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat

The night they drove old Dixie down
And the bells were ringing
The night they drove old Dixie down
And all the people were singing
They went “Na, na, na”

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 “Na, na, na”

I don’t much like the Joan Baez version, simply because she either didn’t read the lyrics or didn’t fully understand them.