The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

by Robbie Robertson

Virgil Cain 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

Back with my wife in Tennessee
When one day she called to me
'Virgil, quick, come see
'There goes Robert E. Lee!'
Now I don't mind chopping wood
And I don't care if the money's no good
You take what you need, and you 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 the people were singing

Like my father before me
I will work the land
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 Cain 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 the people were singing