The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54140   Message #1044152
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
29-Oct-03 - 07:20 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Dixie
Subject: RE: Origins: Dixie
From reading it, it seems pretty clear that it'd be the same tune - I'd guess it was an attempt to supply suitably formal and patriotic words to fit a tune that soldiers were already singing with less reverential words.

Rather the same way as happened in the case of John Brown's Body and the Battle Hymn of the Republic. ("To arms" suggest the author had been listening to the Marseillaise.)