West: Dixie remains point of contention

Just like many other issues raised by the Civil War, the origins, meaning and intent of the song, "Dixie," remains a topic of debate.
Both Confederate and Union troops had their own favorite songs both patriotic and sentimental.
"The Battle Cry of Freedom" was a Union favorite, but there was a Southern version of the song as well.

"John Brown's Body" was transformed by poet Julia Ward Howe into the "Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Confederates particularly enjoyed "The Bonnie Blue Flag" and the romantic "Lorena." Both armies shared songs like "Just Before The Battle Mother," "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground"

Then there was "Dixie," or more properly, "Dixie's Land."

The song was written in 1859 by Daniel Emmett, an Ohio native, who was a member of Bryant's Minstrels. Some believe "Dixie" was really a tune passed on to Emmett by a pair of African-American brothers born to parents who were slaves.

Emmett was a proficient song writer who also penned "Turkey in the Straw," "Old Dan Tucker," and "Blue-Tail Fly."
When Bryant's Minstrels introduced the song in New York City it quickly became a hit with its infectious 4/4 beat. The song wasn't intended to be serious. Its nature was more satirical. But the fact that it was performed by white minstrels in blackface with exaggerated black English vernacular was the first of many reasons the song became so racially charged.

It was the first verse and chorus of the song that caused it to become the unofficial anthem of the Confederate states:

"Dixie" became a hit in the South when the Rumsey and Newcomb Minstrels performed the song in New Orleans in March 1860. Emmett told a fellow performer that same year, "If I had known to what use they were going to put my song, I will be damned if I'd have written it."

After the South began using his song as a rallying call, Emmett wrote the fife and drum manual for the Union Army.

But Dixie was a favorite of President Abraham Lincoln, who said, "I have always thought that 'Dixie' was one of the best tunes I ever heard. I had heard our adversaries had attempted to appropriate it. I insisted yesterday that we had fairly captured it."

There were even Union lyrics for the song:
Away down South in the land of traitors,
Rattlesnakes and alligators,
Right away, come away, right away, come away.
Where cotton's king and men are chattels,
Union boys will win the battles,
Right away, come away.

During the Reconstruction period, rancor continued to grow for the song and its ties to slavery.

However, it didn't truly fall out of favor until the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s. Some of the earliest protests came from Southern universities where the song was a marching band staple. The fact that segregationists adopted "Dixie" as their answer to songs like "We Shall Overcome" was the death knell for the song which was increasing regarded a as a racist relic.