Did you know that the song "Dixie" was played the the inaguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama in 1861 and 1865 in Washington, D.C. at the request of Union President Abraham Lincoln after the surrender of Gen. Robert E. Lee to Gen. Ullysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse? Both Davis and Lincoln loved the song "Dixie."

Many people think Dixie was the National Anthem of the Confederacy. No doubt it was very popular in the South but the official National Anthem of the Confederacy was "God Save the South."

The fact of American history is "Dixie" was part of the official song books of both the Confederate and Union Armies.

Dixie was written by Ohio Native San Emmett and some say a black family from Maryland, the Snodens, may have influenced Emmett in his song. It is written that "The Snodens", a Southern family, missed their native home.

There was a time when schools bands, army bands and many musicians from north and south of the Mason-Dixon Line would play Dixie but few do, today, during these unfortunate times of political correctness.

Let the band play Dixie again which was and still is a truly Great American Tune!

A native of Georgia, Calvin Johnson lives near the historic town of Kennesaw, home of the locomotive "The General" from the War Between the States. He is Chairman of the Confederate History and Heritage Month for the Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans and he's the author of the book When America Stood for God, Family and Country. His email is: cjohnson1861@bellsouth.net.