The Band

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

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

'Til Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again

In the winter of '65, 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 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 choppin' 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 above me, who took a rebel stand

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

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"