The Index – 26 June 1862

The article on the left of the page was written by a contributor who had visited the Confederate states in 1861. Printed in the edition published on 26 June 1862, the piece is about ‘The Tune of Dixie’, one of the most well–known songs in American cultural history. The article discusses a version of the song ‘sung by the 3rd Regiment of the Alabama Volunteers, on their passage through Virginia’ and includes several lyrics.

It also comments that the song was an old minstrel tune that was adapted for numerous situations and comments on the origin of the name, which was a short–hand for the Mason–Dixon line that theoretically divided the North and South.

Towards the end of the article, the most common wartime version of the chorus is quoted, ‘I wish I was in Dixie; in Dixie’s land I’ll take my stand, and live and die in Dixie, Away, Away, Away down South in Dixie’.