The original "Dixie's Land," written by Ohioan Dan Emmett, was a minstrel song, and, although it was much loved in the South, it wasn't a very good battle song. Confederate General Albert Pike solved the problem by writing these new, more martial lyrics, which became an instant hit throughout the Confederacy.

Although staunch Unionists tried, as Irwin Silber notes in Songs of the Civil War, to "reclaim the song for the North" by penning a succession of parodies, none were successful, and the song remained firmly identified with the South. "Union Dixie" was one of many such failed parodies.


"Everybody's Dixie"