Tom: E E A C#m I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war A E E B7 E I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before [Verse 1] E A C#m Courageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stout A E E E B7 We clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders' mouths E A C#m Overwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrun A E E B7 E There were them that said we was badly led and God were we outgunned [Verse 2] E A C#m I lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cut A E E E B7 My favourite mare with her head in the air took the cannon in her gut E A C#m In the first two weeks on that bloody creek my brother lost his arm A E E B7 E Was only sixty days till all we prayed us to get us home unharmed [Verse 3] E A C#m O for the day that we signed our names and the well that we were wished A E E E B7 The men's congrats and the pats on the backs and the ladies that we kissed E A C#m The band that played and the grande parade and the patriotic shouts A E E B7 E All faded fast, didn't even last till the uniforms wore out [Verse 4] E A C#m And there were none to replace nor to help us face the winters cold and bleak A E E E B7 That chilled to the bone the pneumonia prone and froze our bootless feet E A C#m Then the typhoid hit with its fevered fits, TB and dysentery A E E B7 E That prove in the end to have killed more men than the vilest enemy [Verse 5] E A C#m We were finally forced to feed on horse and carcass we could scrounge A E E E B7 When the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops to tarred and barren ground E A C#m With morale in doubt and our pride run out no honour did I see A E E B7 E All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me [Ending] E A C#m I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war A E E B7 E I wanna be in the cavalry but I won't ride home no more