American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

I have long been amazed at how Dixie can be used in so many movies to emphasize so many different things. In Ken Burns Civil War it is both a haunting melacholy refrain and at other times a joyous upbeat number. In Gettysburg it is used in the same way at the start and end of the movie. From Gone with the Wind to a hundred other westerns and Civil War films the music of Dixie can be heard. I can't name very many other songs that can be so altered by a change of beat, tempo, and instrumentation. Whether a banjo, saxophone, trumpet, piano, electric guitar, or harmonica it seems every instrument in the book has dabbled with Dixie. I can only surmise the uses for Dixie to set a mood or express emotions will never be exhausted.

And I know at least one person in this Club must have played Dixie at their Wedding.... whoever it was fess up

I have Dixie as my cellphone ringtone!

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General Stewart Stiles

Army of Northern Virginia

I remember being surprised when hearing in Ken Burn's documentary that upon the Confederacy's surrender at the Appomattox courthouse Lincoln asked a band in Washington D.C. to play "Dixie," adding, "I have always thought 'Dixie' to be one of the best tunes I've ever heard."

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Brigadier General Richard Simonitch
SIXTH BRIGADE (Artillery)
1st. Div. / V Corps
Army of the Potomac

Dan Emmett

"Born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on October 29, 1815, Emmett grew up in the rough frontier community, hearing church hymns, the fife and drums of the militia, and the jolly tunes of the fiddler. He taught himself to play the fiddle and began composing his own tunes at an early age. Dan first performed his song Old Dan Tucker at the age of fifteen during a Fourth of July celebration on the village green in Mount Vernon. At seventeen, he joined the United States Army, becoming the leading fifer at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. He was discharged on July 8, 1835, after the Army learned he had falsified his age in order to enlist. Afterwards he traveled with various circus bands, where he learned the technique of Negro impersonation.

In the winter of 1842-43, four stars of the minstrel profession formed a novel ensemble, consisting of the fiddle, bones, banjo, and tambourine. Calling themselves the "Original Virginia Minstrels," the four men, Dan Emmett on the fiddle, Frank Brower on the bones, Billy Whitlock on the banjo, and Dick Pelham on the tambourine, first performed in public at theBowery Amphitheater on February 6, 1843, in New York. This unique ensemble, along with their song Old Dan Tucker, swept the entire minstrel world. Wearing ill-assorted garments, oddly shaped hats, and gaudy pants and shirts, the four Virginia Minstrels were an often rowdy, fun-loving group. Within a few short months scores of similar minstrel bands were performing throughout the country. The Original Virginia Minstrels had a short life. After a financially disastrous tour of the British Isles in 1844, the group disbanded. All of the minstrels eventually returned to the United States except Dick Pelham, who remained in England.

Emmett composed Dixie in the spring of 1859, while with Bryant's Minstrels in New York. The tune, written as a walkaround, became popular almost immediately and at the outbreak of the Civil War was popular in both the North and South. In the beginning of the war the troops of both armies marched to war to the tune of Dixie but by the end of 1861 Dixie had become identified as a Southern tune, much to the chagrin of Emmett who was anything but a Southern sympathizer."
SOURCE: http://www.danemmett.org/

I am no expert, Sir, but that sure does sound like a great song to me.

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General Prax Swan
1/3/III ANV