This is from Sound Off (E.A. Dolph, 1942). Alan Lomax included the Dolph version in The Folk Songs of North America (Alan Lomax, 1960), but changed a few spellings and left out a couple of verses

The Regular Army, Oh!

Three years ago this very day I went to Governor's Isle
To stand ferinst the cannon in true military style,
Thirteen American dollars each month we'd surely get
To carry a gun and bayonet with a military step.

CHORUS:
There's Sergeant John McCafferty and Corporal Donahue,
They make us march up to the crack in gallant company Q,
The drums they roll, upon my soul, for that's the way we go,
Forty miles a day on beans and hay, in the Regular Army-oh.

We had our choice of going to the army or the jail,
Or it's up the Hudson River with a copper take a sail,
So we puckered up our courage and with bravery did go,
And we cursed the day we marched away with the Regular Army-o.
CHORUS

When we went out to Fort Hobo they run us in the mill,
And there they made us take a bath, 'twas sure against our will,
With three full meals within our belts, each day we had our fill,
And we sat upon the dump cart and watched the terriers drill.
CHORUS

The captain's name was Murphy, of "dacint French descint"
Sure he knew all the holy words in the Hebrew testament;
And when he said to Hogan: "Just move your feet a foot,"
Sure, Hogan jumped a half a mile on Sergeant Riley's boot.
CHORUS

The best of all the officers is Second Lieutenant McDuff;
Of smoking cigarettes and sleep he never got enough.
Says the captain, "All we want of you is to go to Reveille,
And we'll let the first sergeant run the company."
CHORUS

There's corns upon me feet, me boys, and bunions on me toes,
And lugging a gun in the red-hot sun puts freckles on me nose,
And if you want a furlough, to the captain you do go.
He says, 'Go to bed and wait till you're dead in the Regular Army-oh.'
CHORUS

We went to Arizona for to fight the Indians there,
We were nearly caught bald-headed, but they didn't get our hair,
We lay among the ditches in the dirty yellow mud,
And we never saw an on-i-on, a turnip, or a spud.
CHORUS

We were captured by the Indians and brought ferninst the chafe.
Says he, 'We'll have an Irish stew,' the dirty Indian thafe!
[But] On the telegraphic wire we skipped to Mexico,
And we blessed the day we marched away from the Regular Army-oh! CHORUS

---

Here are the notes from Dolph:

Here is another song which, like "The Wide Missouri," is reminiscent of the frontier and the days of the covered wagon. In 1874 a version of it appeared in sheet-music form with words by Ed Harrigan and music adapted and arranged by Braham. But it has been sung in different forms, for the soldier on the frontier adopted it, changed it when he felt inclined, and made it his own. The younger generation in the army does not know it, but to the older officers and those on the retired list it will recall many pleasant memories. An old war correspondent who was with General Miles in the Sioux campaigns of the seventies tells of hearing the general sing this stanza:
We're marching off for Sitting Bull,
And this is the way we go;
Forty miles a day on beans and hay
In the Regular Army, Oh!

---

So, I guess that means the Harrigan-Braham song was first, or was it?
-Joe Offer-