Note DIXIE — Chapter II
Reading edition
Page 411. Dixie. Dan Emmett, the once-famous negro minstrel, was the author of the original "Dixie," which was written in 1859. It is said he got the air from an old plantation melody. It was soon appropriated by the South and became the most popular of all the Southern war songs. The words used, however, were not Emmett's, which were mere doggerel, but General Albert Pike's, as given in the text. Since the war, "Dixie" has grown as popular in the North as in the South. Many verses have been set to the air, but none of them, besides Emmett's and Pike's, has gained any popularity.