The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Dixie \Dix"ie\ (d[i^]ks"[y^]), prop. n.
1. A colloquial name for the Southern portion of the United
States, esp. during the Civil War. [U.S.]
Syn: Dixieland, Dixie Land, the Confederacy, Confederate
States of America, the South.
Syn: . [1913 Webster]
2. a song popular in the Confederate states during the
American Civil War, and still played as a nostalgic anthem
by those patriotic to the American south. It was written
by Daniel D. Emmett in 1859.
[PJC]
whistle Dixie to talk unrealistically; to engage in
unrealistic or overoptimistic fantasies; as, that ain't
just whistlin' Dixie.
[PJC]