Fascinating. Thanks kat.

Boy those Southern and Northern "patriotic anthem" rewrites are bad!
No wonder they didn't catch on.

This New England Yankee has to agree with this, from the piece [just a short excerpt, Joe O. - and, it's Music!:]-

"The song's music is of undeniable infectious quality," Cockrell says. "It's anthem-like. It's in 4/4 so it's a kind of propulsive march-like dance rhythm. One can hardly help but be affected just by the musical quality of it."

But then, the Stars & Bars are pretty, too. Well - striking, anyway. However, acquired symbolic significance is, well, significant.

The various early minstrel-dialect verses are most interesting. / I learned "Dixie" at my Maryland grandparents' house, "Gammy" playing the old piano. Her songsheet included the "buckwheat cakes and Injun batter" verse; but not, as I recall, the "Ole Missus" ones.