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I used to walk by this statue a lot and always thought it was weird that there was a monument to Pike in DC, not just because he was a Confederate but also because he was a relatively obscure figure. That being said, his rewrite of Dixie was a big deal. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/protesters-topple-only-confederate-statue-in-the-nations-capital/2020/06/20/d996348c-b2a8-11ea-8f56-63f38c990077_story.html
Pike's "Dixie War Song" was part of a broader movement among some Confederate elites to either replace or rewrite "Dixie." They found the song's northern authorship and joke lyrics inappropriate for the Confederacy's unofficial anthem.
Viewing Pike's lyrics within this context makes it clear he was attempting to craft what he would have deemed a "proper anthem" for the Confederacy, meaning a song that defined what the Rebel nation was all about. So what did Pike see as key elements of the CSA?
You guessed it: slavery. Pike's opening stanza is a call to arms:
Southrons, hear your country call you
Up! lest worse than death befall you!
What is the fate "worse than death" Pike is worried about? That would be Republican rule under Lincoln and its anti-slavery potential.
Southrons, hear your country call you
Up! lest worse than death befall you!
What is the fate "worse than death" Pike is worried about? That would be Republican rule under Lincoln and its anti-slavery potential.
Confederate war songs rarely addressed slavery directly, but it was coded into many and should be read through that lens. Pike, for instance, offers this couplet in his second verse:
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the cursed alliance
Send them back your fierce defiance!
Stamp upon the cursed alliance
That "alliance" was the conspiracy between abolitionists and Republicans white southerners had feared for years that they saw coming to fruition in Lincoln's election. And Pike is fired up about opposing what he sees as "faith betrayed" by northern "spoilers."
Take, for instance, this couplet in which Pike compares Union soldiers to dogs:
Strong as lions, swift as eagles,
Back to their kennels, hunt the beagles!
Strong as lions, swift as eagles,
Back to their kennels, hunt the beagles!
One more thing about Pike's "Dixie": it's one of the clearest sources for the Confederacy's somewhat self-destructive obsession with being on the offensive, highlighted by Gary Gallagher and others.
Pike's chorus is essentially an extended call to take the fight to the North, which seems an odd stance in a song so worried about the "Northern flag in South wind flutter!"
Here's Pike's chorus. Note the word "advance" and especially the last line:
Advance the flag of Dixie!
Hurrah! hurrah!
For Dixie's Land we'll take our stand,
And live and die for Dixie!
To arms! to arms! and conquer peace for Dixie!
Advance the flag of Dixie!
Hurrah! hurrah!
For Dixie's Land we'll take our stand,
And live and die for Dixie!
To arms! to arms! and conquer peace for Dixie!
One more thing about Pike and his song: He was the rare Confederate songwriter who actually ended up part of the Confederate government. He was a pro-southern newspaper editor, commissioned officer, and "Indian agent." We can safely consider him as representing the ruling class.
Ok. I've rambled on long enough. If you want to see Pike's song for yourself, @DukeU has a wonderful digitized sheet music collection that includes a copy: https://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/hasm_conf0427/
And if you want more context for "Dixie" here's my old @nytimes Disunion piece: https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/the-birth-of-dixie/
