Johnny Cash - God Bless Robert E. Lee lyrics

When Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederacy Jefferson Davis was upset about it He said, "How dare that man resent an order Form the President of the Confederate States of America" Then somebody told him that General Lee had made the decision himself In order to save lives because he felt that the battle comin' up Would cost about twenty thousand lives on both sides And he said two hundred forty thousand dead already is enough So this song is not about the north or the south But about the bloody brother war Brother against brother, father against son, the war that nobody won And for all those lives that were saved I gotta say God bless Robert E. Lee Well, the mansion where the General used to live is burning down Cotton fields are blue with Sherman's troops I overheard a Yankee say yesterday Nashville fell So I'm on my way to join the fight General Lee might need my help But look away, look away, Dixie, I don't want them to see What they're doing to my Dixie, God bless Robert E. Lee Sherman's troops burned Atlanta and the flames lit up the sky And those of us who survived it are watchin' my Dixie die But today at Appomattox General Lee sat down And surrendered to the Yankees and Ulysses S Grant So look away, look away Dixie I won't ever stop loving you, my Dixie, till they put me in the ground And the last words they probably Hear from me are God bless Robert E. Lee