15. Both sides sang the other’s music, with modifications
Often as a means of mocking their opponents, both sides adopted and adapted the songs of their enemies. As Southern troops listened to their musicians playing Dixie, they were often treated to the sound of their Union opponents singing, “Away down south in the land of traitors, rattlesnakes and alligators…” Southern troops could respond with the American tune Yankee Doodle, though the hated word Yankee was used in a different context and the introduction to the song became rendered as, “Dixie whipped old Yankee Doodle early in the morning…” The Confederates designated a song as their National Anthem, God Save the South. The United States did not have an official National Anthem until the 1920s.