Am C/G F Em Dm
Virgil Cain is my name and I served on the Danville train,
Am C/G F Em Dm
Till Stonewall’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
C/E F C Dm
In the winter of sixty-five we were hungry, just barely alive.
C/E F
By May the tenth Richmond had fell.
C Dm D
It was a time I remember all so well.
C/G F C/G
The night they drove old Dixie down,
F
And the bells were ringing.
C/G F C/G
The night they drove old Dixie down,
F
And the people were singing. They went…
C/G Am G F
“La la la la la la, la la la la la la la la la.”
Back with my wife in Tennessee, when one day she called 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.
You take what you need and you leave the rest,
But they should never have taken the very best.
Like my father before me, I work the land.
And like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand.
He was just eighteen, proud and brave,
But a Yankee laid him in his grave.
I swear my the mud below my feet,
You can’t raise the cane back up when it’s in the feed.
Refrain
C C/B | Bb Am | Ab G
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