Old General Price

DESCRIPTION: "Old General Price is a mighty fine man, From women an' children he steals all he can, It's damn any man that will follow his trade... These hard times." Perhaps also a playparty: "General Price he made a raid... And lost many a soldier...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: hardtimes Civilwar thief
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Sep-Oct 1864 - Sterling Price's raid in Missouri, which might or might not be the subject of this song
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 224, "Old General Price" (1 fragmentary text, 1 tune)
Abernethy-SinginTexas, p. 102, "General Price" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #7828
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Sterling Price" (subject)
NOTES [167 words]: Sterling Price (1809-1867), a former governor of Missouri and Confederate commander of Missouri troops, was almost certainly not a thief. His troops, however, were undisciplined and therefore even more likely to loot than the average soldier. Their depredations may account for the attitude toward Price shown in this fragment.
I have the strange feeling that Randolphs' "Old General Price" and "Sterling Price" are a single piece, one being adapted from the other -- but since we don't have a single complete stanza of either, and only one tune, this is beyond proof. Abernethy-SinginTexas's game-song text is sufficiently different that it might be a distinct song, but with so little to go with, I've lumped them for now.
Abernethy-SinginTexas's version refers to Price's raid without any other detail, meaning that we can't be sure it refers to Price's Missouri raid, but it was famous (although it was a failure that didn't accomplish much), so if the song refers to anything, it's likely that. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.5
File: R224

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