The Yankee Soldier- Buchanan (NC) c1921 Brown C
[From The Brown Collection; 1952, version C. Brown notes follow.
R. Matteson 2014]
86. The Soldier's Wooing
This old broadside ballad — it goes back at least to the seventeenth century — bears some resemblance in its central scene to 'Earl Brand' (Child 7) and to 'Erlinton' (Child 8) but is quite different in temper and has maintained an identity of its own through many generations. It is widely known and sung. See B.SI-I 103, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 66), North Carolina (FSRA 88-90), Tennessee (BTFLS 11 9-10), the Ozarks (OPS I 303-7), Ohio (BSO 14-17), Illinois (JAFL LXX 215-16), and Michigan (BSSM 380-1).
C. 'The Yankee Soldier.' From an anonymous typescript which Dr. White, both from the manner of the accompanying note and from the mention of Mrs. Buchanan of Horse Creek, assigns confidently to Mrs. Sutton. The note says in part : "It seems strange that there are so few Civil War ballads in the mountains. . . . 'The Yankee Soldier' is neither pretty nor gruesome. ... I am indebted for this copy to Mrs. Buchanan of Horse Creek." Of course it is not really a Civil War ballad; merely an adaptation. Dr. White notes on the typescript that he found this song in Alabama in 1916.
1 A story about a Yankee a-comin' from the war.
He courted Lilly Marrit[1], a secret from her pa.
Her pa was so wealthy it scarcely can be told.
She loved that Yankee soldier because he was so bold.
2 'Lilly Margaret, daughter, my word you'd better mind.
I'll shut [you] in a cave, your body I'll confine.'
'O father, cruel father, my body you can confine.
But you can't put the Yankee soldier from out my mind.'
3 Then up spoke the Yankee soldier: 'Oh, never mind the tattle,
If I'm to be a married man I shore can fight a battle.'
So his bride she hel' the horses and the Yankee fought the battle,
So his bride she hel' the horses and the Yankee fought the battle.
4 The first man that come he shot through the brain [2],
An' the next man that come he served him the same.
'Fly,' said the others, 'your sons will all be slain;
To fight the Yankee soldier you see it is in vain,'
5 'O Yankee, O Yankee, don't strike your licks so bold.
Fur I'll give to you my daughter and forty pounds o' gold.'
'No,' says the daughter, 'the sum it is too small.
Fight on, my Yankee soldier, you soon will git it all.'
1. Margaret, as in verse 2.
2. possibly adapted from: run through "amain."