Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train,
Till Stoneman s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.
In the winter of sixty-five we were hungry, just barely alive.
By May the tenth Richmond had fell.
It was a time I remember oh, so well.
The night they drove old Dixie down,
When all the bells were ringing.
The night they drove old Dixie down,
And the people were singing. They went,
"Na na na na na na, na na na na na na na na na."
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 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.
(refrain)
Like my father before me, I will 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 a Caine back up when he s in defeat.