The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville trainTill Stoneman’s Cavalry came and tore up the tracks againIn the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely aliveI took the train to Richmond that fellIt was a time I remember, oh, so well..The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the bells were ringin'The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singin'They went, "Na, na, na"
Back with my wife in Tennessee and one day she said to me"Virgil, quick, come see, there goes Robert E. Lee"Now I don't mind, I'm chopping woodAnd I don't care if the money's no goodJust take what you need and leave the restBut they should never have taken the very best
The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the bells were ringin'The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singin'They went, "Na, na, na"
Like my father before me, I'm a working manAnd like my brother before me, I took a rebel standBut he was just 18, proud and braveBut a yankee laid him in his graveI swear by the blood below my feetYou can't raise a Caine back up when he's in defeat...The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the bells were ringin'The night they drove old Dixie downAnd all the people were singin'They went, "Na, na, na"