The Dixie was a schooner of 110 tons, built at Baltimore, in 1856, as the H. & J. Neild. In 1860 she had been sold to Captain Thomas J. Moore, who employed her in the West Indian trade until the commencement of the war. Then changing her name to the Dixie, Moore, a Virginian, and a bold and enterprising man, ran her through the blockade into Charleston. There he organized a stock company and sold the schooner to it for $5,500. The company applied for and received a letter of marque on June 26. The application stated that the armament would consist of three guns, and the ship’s company of thirty-five persons, with Captain Moore commanding.
Source: The Confederate Privateers, William Robinson (1928)