Daniel Decatur Emmett

Daniel Decatur Emmett (1815–1904) was an American entertainer and composer, born in Mount Vernon, Ohio, who helped found the Virginia Minstrels and wrote the minstrel songs "Old Dan Tucker" and "Dixie" (1859).

"I Wish I Was in Dixie's Land" was adopted as a marching song of the Confederacy; it is reprinted here from W. L. Fagan's Southern War Songs (1890).