Rebel Soldier, The

DESCRIPTION: Floating verses about this lonely soldier's life. "It's grapeshot and musket, And the cannons lumber loud. There's many a mangled body with blankets for a shroud." Characteristic line: "I am a rebel soldier and far from my home."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1918 (Cox)
KEYWORDS: Civilwar separation home
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Randolph 246, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 277-278, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 157, "The Rebel Soldier, or The Poor Stranger" (7 texts, 7 tunes, but A and probably F are "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)")
Sharp/Karpeles-EightyEnglishFolkSongs 50, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune -- an abridged composite version)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 76, "The Rebel Soldier" (2 texts, but only the first belongs here; the second is The Sweet Sunny South (I) [Laws A23])
Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 117, pp. 258-259, "O Lillie, O Lillie," mostly "Rye Whiskey" but with some verses belonging here; also 116, p. 258, "I'll Eat When I'm Hungry" (1 fragment, a single stanza based on "Rye Whiskey" but probably belonging here: "I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry, If the Yankees don't kill me, I'll live till I die")
Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana 91, "One Morning in May" (1 text, in which it is a "poor stranger" rather than a "rebel soldier" and with many floating lyrics)
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 136-138, "One Morning in May" (2 text, 1 tune, but only the "B" text, "The Troubled Soldier," belongs here; "A" is "One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing)" [Laws P14])
Silber-CivilWarFull, pp. 215-216, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-SoldierSongsAndHomeFrontBalladsOfCivilWar, pp. 72-73, "The Rebel Soldier" (1 text, 1 tune)
Saffel-CowboyPoetry, pp. 211-213, "Jack o' Diamonds" (1 text; this particular Lomax offering contains elements of "Jack o Diamonds/Rye Whisky," "The Wagoner's Lad," The Rebel Soldier," and others)
NorthCarolinaFolkloreJournal, Daniel W. Patterson, "A Remarkable Collection of 'Song Ballets...'," Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Nov. 1966), pp. 35-36, "Song Ballet Rebel Soldier" (1 text, extremely mixed)
Roud #259
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)" (meter, floating lyrics)
cf. "The Wagoner's Lad" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Jack of Diamonds" (floating lyrics)
cf. "In Eighteen-Forty-Nine" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The Blind Fiddler"
NOTES [90 words]: Randolph's version is specific to the Missouri campaigns of General Sterling Price, but more generic versions of the song are abundant.
The first line, interestingly, seems to float; Sharp, Brewster-BalladsAndSongsOfIndiana, and Cox each have version from "One Morning In May" or the like (One morning, one morning, one morning in May, I heard a poor soldier lamenting and say"; another text (to the tune of "Rye Whisky") starts with lyrics from "Banks of the Nile" or something similar ("Oh Polly, oh Polly, it's for your sake alone"). - RBW
Last updated in version 6.1
File: R246

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