| Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train | 
| 'til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again | 
| In the winter of '65, we were hungry, just barely alive | 
| I took the train to Richmond that fell | 
| It was a time I remember, oh, so well | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down | 
| And all the bells were ringin' | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down | 
| And all the people were singin' | 
| They went, «Na, na, na, na, na, na, … " | 
| Back with my wife in Tennessee | 
| And one day she said to me, | 
| «Virgil, Quick! | 
| Come see! | 
| There goes Robert E. Lee.» | 
| Now I don’t mind, I’m chopping wood | 
| And I don’t care if the money’s no good | 
| Just take what you need and leave the rest | 
| But they should never have taken the very best | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down | 
| And all the bells were ringin' | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down | 
| And all the people were singin' | 
| They went, «Na, na, na, na, na, na, … " | 
| Like my father before me, I’m a working man | 
| And like my brother before me, I took a rebel stand | 
| Oh, he was just 18, proud and brave | 
| But a yankee laid him in his grave | 
| I swear by the blood below my feet | 
| You can’t raise a Cane back up when he’s in defeat | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down | 
| And all the bells were ringin' | 
| The night they drove old Dixie down |